It Started With a Misunderstanding
by jigglyjelly28
Summary: The War is over and everyone returns to Hogwarts for their Seventh Year. Unfortunately, the Years before hadn't been able to have a proper Prank War because of 'certain events', but now they are. So, the question is - What will happen when a seemingly harmless prank war and a misunderstood request causes Hermione and Draco to fall in love?
1. Surprises

**A/N In this story the only people that have not died are Fred, Sirius, Snape, Dumbledore and Dobby**

* * *

It had been 6 months since the war ended and Harry had defeated Voldemort once and for all. Life for the Golden Trio was finally starting to become normal; Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley had finally started dating and Harry Potter was now dating Ginny Weasley. Hermione also after the war restored her parents' memories and now went back to living with them. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were still the best of friends and they, along with many of the students that aided in the war, had informed Professor Dumbledore, that they were returning to Hogwarts to finish their education.

Hermione Granger was sitting on her bed in her room quietly reading the Daily Prophet until she heard a tapping at her window. She looked up to see a large brown owl that she had never seen before, holding a note in its beak. Wondering whose owl it could be, she walked over to the window and opened it, taking the letter from the owl which didn't hang around for a treat and instead flew away. Hermione turned the envelope over to see the Hogwarts seal, this caused her to grow a big smile and Hermione excitedly tore the envelope open to see the letter that she was hoping she would receive.

_Dear Miss Granger,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as Head Girl for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
We will be expecting to see you and the Head Boy in the teacher's compartment on the Hogwarts Express to give you your duties as Head Girl and Head Boy.  
We are greatly looking forward to welcoming you back for your 7th year at Hogwarts and hope that you will continue to set a good example to the other students._

_Albus Dumbledore  
Headmaster._

Hermione was so happy and excited she couldn't suppress a squeal of happiness especially when she picked the Head Girl badge out from the envelope. Immediately she ran downstairs to her parents to share with them the good news, once she and her parents' finished celebrating Hermione ran back upstairs to inform Harry, Ron and Ginny of her accomplishment of Head Girl. Hermione was so ecstatic that she didn't even think about who the Head Boy could be-she didn't even care. All she knew was that it couldn't be some idiot like Crabbe or Goyle, so she was perfectly happy not having to think that she would be stuck sharing a common room with _them. _Harry, Ron and Ginny replied to her letter very quickly and after their messages of congratulations, Hermione found out that Ron had become a prefect again and Harry and Ginny have been chosen as one for the first time. If Hermione could get any happier she'd explode. The next morning the four of them would be going to Diagon Alley to collect their things for school.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was continuing his life as if the last year or so hadn't happened. He wanted to completely forget about being forced into becoming a Death Eater, to forget about the mission that he was made to do by Voldemort and to forget about fighting with the Death Eaters as they killed many students whom he went to school with. Draco was also fairly happy living in the present and not having to worry about what had happened and feeling as happy thinking that he wasn't going to be going back to Hogwarts to finish his 7th year

Draco Malfoy had just taken his broom out of his cupboard in his bedroom and was about to go for a nice fly while the sun was still out, when he saw an unfamiliar large brown owl coming towards his window. With a sigh he set his broom down against his bed and opened the window to let the owl in, all he saw though when the owl reached the window was a letter being held in its beak. Carefully he took the letter from the owl, in case it bit him, and turned it over to see the Hogwarts seal. Draco's eyes went wide with shock and without thinking of opening the envelope first, he rushed downstairs to see his mother and father about this. They had not told him that he would be returning for his 7th year.

"When were you planning on telling me that I would be returning to Hogwarts in September?!" Draco said, throwing the letter on the table that Narcissa and Lucius were sitting around, annoyed that his parents had kept this secret from him.

"Well we weren't going to tell you. Really I thought it was quite obvious that you would be returning to Hogwarts, like every other year, to finish your education." Narcissa Malfoy stated simply.

"So what? Were you just going to drop me off at Platform 9¾ and expect me to figure out that, as a matter of fact, I was going back to school in September?! I thought I was going to be staying here! I don't have any things for school!" Draco complained, not very happy at the fact that they had kept him in the dark for so long-he didn't even know whether any of his friends were going back.

"We'll take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning." Lucius Malfoy said simply and turned back to reading the Daily Prophet as Narcissa reached for the letter, inspecting it closely with a small smile on her face.

"No don't worry I'll apparate there with Blaise tomorrow since I've _got_ to go back to school." Draco sighed.

"Draco dear, have you read the letter?" Narcissa asked finding it hard to keep the excitement from her voice.

"No, of course not. As soon as I saw the seal on the back I came down here wondering why I hadn't been told about going back to school!" Draco said taking the letter from his mother. His eyes widened in horror as he read what the letter said.

_Dear Mr Malfoy,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as Head Boy for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
We will be expecting to see you and the Head Girl in the teacher's compartment on the Hogwarts Express to give you your duties as Head Boy and Head Girl.  
We are greatly looking forward to welcoming you back for your 7th year at Hogwarts and hope that you will continue to set a good example to the other students._

_Albus Dumbledore  
Headmaster._

"No, no, no! Head Boy! I'm Head Boy! This can't be happening!" Draco muttered to himself in horror. Then suddenly two things occurred to him: Who was the Head Girl? And he was pretty sure that his mother knew about him becoming Head Boy. "You-you! How did you know I was Head Boy?!" He stuttered.

"Who do you think _got_ you to be Head Boy?" Narcissa stated simply. Draco couldn't believe his ears. His mother-his _own_mother-made him Head Boy! He didn't even want to go back to school let alone be Head Boy!

"Why?!" Draco whined.

"Being Head Boy is a great achievement Draco. Be grateful." Lucius said.

"Be grateful? _Be _grateful?! Did you know that I have to share a common room with the Head Girl?! Merlin knows what unfortunate girl they-" Draco stopped mid-rant as he saw his mother take a suspicious sip of her tea, "You! You know who the Head Girl is!" Draco exclaimed pointing a finger at his mother with a crazy look in his eye.

Narcissa carefully placed her teacup down on the table with a sheepish smile before turning to her son, "Now Draco what you have to understand about that, is that I only had a little part in choosing who Head Girl was so I don't want you to blame me for-"

"Who's Head Girl?" Draco said suddenly turning stern.

"Hermione Granger." Narcissa whispered barely loud enough for Draco to hear, but unluckily for him, he heard his mother perfectly well. All Draco could think about at that moment was how this was the end of his life.

* * *

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had finished shopping for their school things and were now heading to Fred and George's joke shop that they owned in Diagon Alley. As soon as they stepped through the doors to 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' they were greeted by the identical red-headed twins.

"Hello little brother," Fred Weasley started saying.

"Sister," George continued before going back to Fred.

"Harry,"

"And...Hermione!" They both said in unison. "What can we do for you?"

"We just thought we'd stop off to see how you're doing since we've already bought our things for school." Ginny Weasley replied to her two older brothers; suddenly the twins had mischievous grins plastered on their faces and a twinkle in their eyes.

"You don't mean-"

"You're going back-"

"For 7th year?" They said in unison again.

"Of course we are you idiots. Well me, Harry and Hermione are at least-Ginny's only in 6th. Why?" Ron asked curious about what his brothers were on about.

"Remember our 7th year Georgie?" Fred asked his brother.

"Of course I do Freddie! Best year there-well, until Umbridge came along and banned it for the rest of the year!" George replied unhappily.

"On the plus side though we did manage to help Oliver during his last year and do a few of our own."

"What the bloody hell are you two babbling on about?!" Ron asked getting impatient.

"The 7th year prank war of course!" They chorused like it was obvious.

"Prank war?" Hermione replied confused.

"Dumbledore finds it highly entertaining." George replied like it was the answer to everything.

"Yes, but what is it?" Harry asked taking interest in the conversation.

"I thought it was pretty self explanatory myself, what about you Fred?" George said looking down at Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry.

"Same here George. These four must be pretty thick, how _did _you make prefects?"

"I can't be that thick if I've been chosen to be Head Girl." Hermione replied in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"Did you hear that George? 'Mione's made Head Girl!"

"Right then! Because of all your achievements with Hermione's being the best," Fred said with a smirk and wink, "You get to choose 2 things each for free from the shop! You're going to need them if you're to survive in the prank war."

* * *

Later on yesterday, after Draco had been told he would be going back to school, he owled Blaise Zabini. Draco couldn't care less whether Parkinson, Goyle or Nott was returning for their 7th year, all he needed to know was whether his best mate Blaise was coming otherwise he feared that he might lose his mind. Luckily though he was and as well as stopping Draco from losing his mind, Blaise would also be a big help in stopping Draco from doing anything stupid as now, thanks to his mother, he was forced to complete Head Boy duties with Granger.

Draco and Blaise were in Diagon Alley, they had just, unfortunately in Draco's mind, bought all of the things they needed for school and were now headed for Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. They didn't order anything as it was a quite cold autumn day, but they did sit down and catch up on what's happened since they'd last seen each other. They were so into their conversation that they didn't notice that Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny were also coming towards the Ice Cream Parlour.

"So if you're Head Boy, who's Head Girl?" Blaise asked looking at his friend as a weird look crossed over his friend's features.

Draco looked up at his friend and forced out the words 'Hermione Granger'. Just the mention of her name made Blaise smirk, but knowing how his friend felt about her and only being able to guess the amount of hatred she felt for Draco, added to the fact that they would be sharing the same dormitory, made Blaise form a big grin. Such a big grin in fact that even Draco's glare didn't make it falter, and just seeing who was almost behind Draco just made him grin wider.

"Well, well, well, speak of the devil." Blaise said mockingly nodding behind Draco to where Hermione was approaching. Blaise looked at Draco who had a horrified expression as he saw Blaise's mischievous smirk and didn't even hear Draco utter the words 'Don't you dare!' before he called out to her. "Congratulations on making Head Girl Granger! Should have known _you'd_be coming back for 7th year, we are though too-aren't we Malfoy." Blaise said looking at the four friends and then back to Draco whose head was rested against the table with his eyes closed hoping that Blaise would leave him alone. All Draco did was grunt in agreement. He really didn't want to be there right now.

Hermione however was confused, Zabini had just congratulated her on being Head Girl, how he knew she had no idea and even stranger the congratulations wasn't sarcastic and he didn't sneer it either. But the strangest thing yet was that Malfoy had not even acknowledged that they were there, nor had he insulted any of them yet. There was something definitely wrong with him. "Thanks Zabini, I guess, but how'd you know I was Head Girl?" Hermione asked curious about the strange behaviour coming from the two Slytherin's.

"The Head Boy told me..." At this Draco groaned, he decided that if this got any worse he'd just disapparate home, "His mother knew who it was and told him, who in turn, told me. I can't remember who it was though, it was a rather unlikely person-I'll tell you that. Can you remember who the Head Boy is Malfoy?" Blaise said grinning at his best mate who he could tell wasn't enjoying what he was saying.

Draco looked up at Blaise and glared at him, "No. I don't remember who Head Boy is." He spat.

"That's strange. Imagine not remembering who you are!"

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Harry said.

"He said nothing Potter. Zabini here is just being stupid."

"No-he just said something about Head Boy and I want to know what the bloody hell is going on!" Ron insisted.

"You're right Weasley I was and now I remember who Head Boy is! Head Boy is none other than-" Draco quickly interrupted Blaise before he could say anything else.

"He doesn't know wh-" Draco stated with a wave of his hand before being cut off by Hermione.

"Shut up Malfoy, we want to know who Head Boy is and Zabini was just about to tell us! Continue please Zabini."

"Where was I? Oh yeah! I remember who Head Boy is it's-" Blaise started saying before Draco cut him off again.

"Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!"

"That's it!" Hermione said getting impatient and annoyed at Draco's constant interruptions. She took out her wand and in one swift movement placed a silencing charm over him. "Now hurry up and spit it out, Malfoy here has ruined the suspense and I'm tired of waiting."

"Draco Malfoy is Hogwarts' new Head Boy!" Blaise exclaimed with delight as Draco muttered to himself 'kill me. Kill me now.' Hermione froze with her mouth agape in shock while Harry, Ginny and Ron just stood there with similar expressions as they took in Blaise's shocking news. Blaise started laughing their expressions and laughed even harder as Draco reached over to try and attack him.

"Well I guess we know who we're getting first in the Prank War." Is all Harry seemed able to say.


	2. Back at Hogwarts

Hermione Granger had already apparated to Kings Cross station even though she was still fairly early; she had promised to meet Harry, Ron and Ginny there but they wouldn't be arriving for another 10 minutes, so Hermione sat on one of the benches by platform 9 and 10 and waited for them. Before she left her parents home that morning she had made sure that she packed the two things she took from Fred and George's shop for the prank war-Hermione had promised herself that she wasn't going to get involved in the war unless someone pulled a prank on her first. After walking about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes at least twice she settled on taking a box of Ton-Tongue Toffees and some Canary Creams, but although she took the products, she hoped that no one would involve her in the war. It had only been around 5 minutes before Hermione heard a group of trolleys rattling towards her; she looked over to her right to see her 3 friends.

"Ron!" Hermione said excitedly and ran over to hug her boyfriend.

"'Mione!" Ron said as Hermione engulfed him in an embrace.

"And we're here too!" Ginny laughed as Hermione walked over to hug her and then Harry.

"You're early..." Hermione observed as she broke away from the hug with Harry.

"Don't act like you're surprised." Harry said smirking.

"Well, you never usually are." Hermione said smirking back at Harry.

"So how you feeling about Malfoy being Head boy? Still don't care?" Ginny asked as they all sat back down on the bench to talk for a while before passing through the wall.

"Not really, he seemed to be acting really strangely that day at Diagon Alley when Zabini told us it was him. It's like he doesn't even want to be Head Boy or wanted us to know, so I'm not really worried. Besides, if he tries to pull anything I've got those Ton-Tongue Toffees and Canary Creams that I can 'accidently' give him. I'll be fine." Hermione reassured them. Ever since Harry, Ron and Ginny found out that Draco was Head Boy they had been suspicious as to why he was chosen to be it, Harry and Ron more than Ginny. Hermione wasn't as suspicious as them but she still was slightly weary of what might happen especially since he was the most likely to retaliate after Harry and Ron prank him tomorrow, they believed it was the perfect excuse to do something to him without getting in trouble.

* * *

On 1st September Draco Malfoy reluctantly pulled his trunk downstairs to say goodbye to his parents before he apparated to Kings Cross station to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. It had been less than a month since Blaise announced to Hermione, Harry, Ginny and Ron that Draco was the new Head Boy and ever since then Draco had been wondering what Hermione thought, and what kind of hell it's going to be like sharing a dormitory with her. Draco thought that they took it better than he expected though, considering that they were too shocked to say anything and Draco quickly disapparated, after trying to attack Blaise, before any of them could insult or attack him.

Draco arrived at Kings Cross at almost 11 o' clock and quickly hurried through the wall before it sealed, as soon as he came on to Platform 9¾ he quickly handed his luggage to someone who worked on the Hogwarts Express and ran on the train before it left the station. He walked up and down the train's corridor looking in every compartment searching for Blaise, he had been searching for around about 10 minutes before Hermione spotted him and walked quickly towards him.

"What are you doing?! Hurry up and get in your robes!" Hermione, who was already in her robes and bearing the red 'Head Girl' badge on her cloak, ordered Draco who was slightly confused at her sudden outburst.

"And why would I do that Granger?" Draco sneered crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow at her.

"Because _Malfoy_, the Head Girl and Head _Boy_ are meant to be in the teacher's compartment now! So hurry up and get your robes on!" Hermione said shooing Draco back with her hands.

"OK, OK, calm down. I'll be ready in a minute." Draco said and walked towards the bathrooms to change into his robes. As soon as he came out Hermione grabbed his arm and proceeded to pull him towards the teachers compartment.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

I was quite surprised that Malfoy actually listened to me when I ordered him to go change into his robes. He's different to how I remember him. When he came out wearing his blue 'Head Boy' badge on his robes I quickly took his arm and dragged him down the corridor towards the teacher's compartment. Again I was quite surprised that Malfoy didn't even try to wriggle out of my grasp or refuse to be pulled. I don't think I could cope with a whole year of him acting oddly. Once we reached the compartment I let go of his arm and straightened out my robes before walking in.

"I found him professor." I said to Professor McGonagall as Malfoy entered behind me.

"Very good Miss Granger. Mr Malfoy." McGonagall greeted us as Malfoy closed the door. "Now as a tradition as Head Boy and Girl you are required to share a dormitory. After dinner I'll show you both where it is, would you like to choose a password now or later?" She asked.

"We'll choose one now." I said and looked up at Malfoy to see whether he had any complaints against it, he just nodded his head which made it a whole lot easier by him agreeing but it was still strange as this was the first time that he's ever agreed with me. "Any ideas Malfoy?" I asked still looking up at him.

"Nope. You can choose. I don't care." He said in a bored tone of voice.

"So I can call it whatever I want and you wouldn't care?" I asked surprised.

"Yep, I just said that." I just shrugged my shoulders and started to think up a password that would annoy him since he said he couldn't care less what I chose, after a while I finally thought of one.

"Ummm...Well Draco Malfoy the amazing bouncing ferret is a bit too long for a password, don't you think? So, what about just bouncing ferret? Like the password Malfoy?" I said sweetly, he didn't answer but instead shot me a glare. "Good. So that'll be our password." I said sweetly again turning back to McGonagall. She didn't have much of a reaction to the password and accepted it after taking Malfoy's glare.

"OK so, that will be the password I'll make sure to inform the portrait when we arrive. Now every night you will be expected to go round the castle checking for students out of their dorms together and although Dumbledore sees it as 'harmless fun' you are still able to take points off students for the prank war. Now I need you to go see the prefects and give them their duties now." McGonagall stated.

As soon as we left the compartment to go talk to the prefects Malfoy asked, "Prank war?"

"It's for the 7th years. They let 7th years pull pranks on each other every year; I'm surprised we haven't noticed it before." I said.

"Let me guess; you read about it in Hogwarts: A history?" He mocked.

"No actually, Ron's brothers told us, you know the ones that own the prank shop? They also gave us some things for us to use." I stated, he looked a bit taken back but replied with a nod of his head and walked to the prefects without another word.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

When we entered the prefect carriage I immediately hated the sight in front of me; Weasely and his sister as well as Potter had been chosen as prefects. There were hardly any Slytherin's this year that were prefects or had even come back, Parkinson however was one of them and luckily she had finally gotten over me. Most the prefects though we Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and practically all of them hated me. I smirked knowing that this year I had the power to make them do whatever I say. Granger told them all their duties as I just stood there and listened.

"Oh and the 7th years are having their Prank War, McGonagall said that although Dumbledore doesn't care to take points of for pranks, you still can if you want to." Granger said. I sighed, 'of course she would mention taking points off for pranks. She is such a kill joy!' I thought to myself even though I knew no one would listen to her or McGonagall.

Once we finished talking to the prefects we went back to our own compartments for the rest of the journey. As I was going to continue my search for Blaise it seemed that he had already found me, since he pulled me into the compartment.

"So, how'd it go with Granger?" Blaise asked me smirking.

"Nothing really, we just had to choose a password for our dormitory and then talk to the prefects. She can't seem to let the fact go that I was a ferret though..." I said to him with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Mate, no one is going to let that go-I haven't even let it go! Anyway, have you tried being nice to her like you said you would?" Blaise stated.

I nodded my head, "Yeah but she keeps giving me weird looks-it's like she thinks I'm someone else and-and she's making it difficult to be nice!"

"Well you did call her mudblood for like 6 years and now you haven't even mentioned it once. You can't expect her to not think something strange is going on."

"Yeah well we're sharing a dormitory-I'd rather not have insults thrown at me or be attacked everyday and I'm sure she doesn't either so she should at least expect me being civil. Anyway did you hear? There's the 7th year-"

"Prank war? Yeah I know I heard Parkinson talking about it. So what are going to?" Blaise asked excitedly.

"I don't know but remember the Weasley twins?" I asked Blaise.

"Yeah, the ones that threw the fireworks during the O. with Umbridge, right?" Blaise clarified. I nodded my head and continued to talk.

"They gave Granger and her friends things from their shop. I bet any money that the first people they get are us."

"You think Granger is going to compete in this war? I don't think she's changed that much mate."

"Of course I don't! She's Granger! It'll be Potter and Weasley most likely-she'll probably take points off them though."

"Well then, keep your eyes open. Anyway, I've got a plan." Blaise said smirking and lowered his voice to a whisper for some reason and continued to speak.

* * *

The sorting this year was larger than usual as there were witches and wizards that had gotten their letter late as Hogwarts was still being rebuilt when they turned 11. Not many students this year were placed in Slytherin and from looking at their table at any place in the hall you could see that they had the least amount of people. Once the feast ended and Dumbledore gave his beginning of year speech(also introducing the new Head Boy and Girl which was followed by a lot of whispering and murmurs) along with a warning to everyone saying 'Be careful around the school and watch for anything suspicious' with a wink, not even elaborating what he meant-but he didn't need to as most people who had already been told about the prank war by their older siblings or friends-6th years and lower left the hall, leaving 7th years to be spoken to by Dumbledore.

"As most of you know, every year 7th years participate in the traditional prank war. In the past years it has mostly gone unnoticed due to _events, _so this year I want it to be BIGGER and better! You can go to Hogsmeade whenever to get things for your pranks, you can prank younger years and your own houses. The only rule is: No pranks that could seriously injure someone. I don't want any unfortunate loss of limbs. Last but not least anything goes! The war begins now!" Dumbledore exclaimed before telling everyone that they were excused to go. Ravenclaws were busy discussing smart ideas for plans between themselves, Hufflepuffs were talking in large groups about things they could do to other houses, Slytherins were planning in their heads things that they could do to each other and other houses that could potentially be humiliating and harmful and the Gryffindors were talking in small groups eyeing the others suspiciously while discussing things they could do to they Slytherins.

"What could we do to Malfoy? We could give him one of Hermione's Ton-Tongue Toffees, it's not like she's going to use them." Ron said to Harry as they walked out of the Great Hall on the way back to the Gryffindor common room.

"He's tormented us for years, we should start with something relatively big. But the thing is, how are supposed to get him away from anyone to do it-he's always got his 'bodyguards' with him. It's not like he likes them anyway!" Harry complained.

"Why not just join him to someone?" Pavarti Patil helpfully suggested.

"Have you been eavesdropping on our conversation?!" Ron said annoyed.

"Well yes, but I was only suggesting a way you could get Malfoy back. I mean, I won't do anything to you if you don't do anything to me-I could warn you about things as well, we could be like 'allies'." Pavarti innocently said. Harry and Ron looked at each other, they didn't fully trust Pavarti, she could easily be messing with them. They needed an ally though and they could always prank her back, besides it was a fairly good idea. They shrugged their shoulders at each other and turned back to her.

"Thanks for the idea." Harry said. Pavarti just smiled and walked off.

"Hey, I think Fred and George once mentioned a jinx that lasts for a couple of days-it handcuffs people together." Ron exclaimed. All Harry could say while his mouth was in a large grin was 'excellent'

Back on the way to the Head's Dorm Draco and Hermione were doing their best to ignore each other as McGonagall showed them the way to it. Once they reached the portrait entrance, which was of a red-headed mermaid, McGonagall said the password 'bouncing ferret' and Hermione had to stifle a snicker at Draco's face. McGonagall told the both of them that they would have to go round the castle every night starting tomorrow and then left the both of them in silence.

"I hate that password." Draco muttered as he levitated his luggage in the air.

"You said you didn't care what the password was!" Hermione said cheerfully.

"Yeah but you wouldn't like it if it was, I don't know-'mental beaver!'" He complained.

Hermione didn't say anything back but did a small giggle and walked into her room with her bags floating behind her. But before she entered her room Draco asked,"What?"

"The Ferret Head Boy and The Beaver Head Girl." She smiled and closed the door behind her. If she had waited a little longer she would have seen Draco walk into his room shaking his head and smiling.


	3. The War Begins

Hermione woke up early that morning and walked into their small living room to notice that Draco wasn't up yet. She wondered for a moment whether he would be stupid enough to take one of the Canary Creams thinking that they were just a normal biscuit. The thought was very welcoming but she pushed it to the back of her mind as she thought about the promise that she made to herself yesterday. Besides, she knew Draco would go through enough torment today as she suspected that Harry and Ron had already thought up a plan to prank him. She quietly went through her normal routine being careful not to wake Draco up, but as she was about to leave she decided to bash her fist against his door very loudly as to startle him, Hermione smiled as she heard him give a small scream then thudded to the floor as she suspected he fell off his bed.

She walked down to the Great Hall with the smile still on her face as Harry and Ron ran up to her.  
"Hey 'mione, wait till you see what we have in store for Malfoy." Ron said smirking.

Hermione looked first at Ron and then to Harry before saying, "Judging by the looks on your faces, I doubt that what you've come up with has anything to do with Fever Fudge or Puking Pastilles." She said raising an eyebrow at them.

"It's nothing that bad 'mione. You won't need to take points." Harry said patting her head like a little child.

"Where is that ferret anyway?" Ron asked.

"He should be coming down soon unless he's still on the floor." Hermione smirked. The boys just shrugged their shoulders and sat down next to each other at the Gryffindor table waiting patiently for Draco to walk through the doors. After a couple of minutes Draco strutted into the hall and over to the Slytherin table, sitting next to Blaise, both in sitting in a perfect position to be jinxed by Harry and Ron.

* * *

"Did you find out when the Gryffindor Quidditch practice is?" Draco whispered to Blaise as he sat next to him.

"Yeah don't worry its soon-on Wednesday next week in fact." Blaise reassured Draco.

"That's a whole week away! They're probably going to get us before then!" Draco complained throwing his hands up in the air.

("Just wait for the opportune moment." Harry whispered to Ron as they watched the two Slytherin's.)

"Yeah but theirs is not going to be as good as ours." Blaise said patting Draco on the shoulder. Draco just sighed, nodded his head and reached for an apple as Blaise continued to eat from his plate.

* * *

"_Handcuff Simul." _Ron whispered, as he tried not to gain too much attention, and waved his wand. Luckily the two Slytherin's had their backs to them, so they only noticed that someone had handcuffed them together when Draco tried to take a bite out of his apple at the same time Blaise tried to eat a piece of sausage. Consequently Draco jerked his hand quickly which resulted in Blaise's sausage hitting Draco in the face, earning a couple of snickers from the Gryffindor table.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Draco and Blaise's shocked faces as they saw the silver handcuff that 'magically appeared' joining Draco's left hand to Blaise's right. She continued to snicker at them as they constantly argued over how they were going to eat or how to get it off. "So, who was the one that came up with this clever idea of handcuffing them together?" Hermione asked as Ron and Harry high-fived each other.

"That would be me." Pavarti shouted down the table at them as she once again joined in their conversation.

"You?" Hermione asked shocked at her old roommate.

"Yes me. We are allies." She stated.

"You're allies with her and not me?!" Hermione said shocked turning back to Harry and Ron.

"Well, you said you wouldn't join in." Harry justified.

"Well...umm...I'm not. Not until someone involves me." Hermione said looking down. She would never admit it but even though this was the first day, the war looked like it was going be fun and it seemed that if no one got her, she'd be missing out on a lot.

* * *

"See! I told you'd they'd get us!" Draco complained to Blaise, jerking his hand as far away from Blaise as he could as Blaise was about to eat just to annoy him.

"How do you know it was them anyway?!" Blaise said irritated at the thought that Draco was right.

"Look at them! They're snickering away at us! I bet anything Granger gave them this-this-this jinx!" Draco accused still constantly moving his hand so Blaise couldn't eat.

"OK fine. We'll get Potter and Weasley next week at their Quidditch practice, Granger still hates flying right? We'll just drug her Saturday night and stick her on a broom for Slytherin's Quidditch practice on Sunday morning. Easy. Done." Blaise said getting more and more annoyed by the minute at Draco.

"Oh no! I am not waiting for another 3 or 10 days to get them back while they attack us every day till then! I am getting them tomorrow! I don't care whether it's rubbish-they are not getting away with this!" Draco spat angrily and stormed off to the library, yanking Blaise behind him, to look up repeating charms and for some way to take the handcuff off.

* * *

Everyone in the hall watched as Draco stormed out of the hall practically dragging Blaise behind him and every Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and even some of the Slytherins were whispering praises to whoever might have done it. On the Gryffindor table however most people knew that Harry and Ron had done it, whether it was because they saw Ron perform the spell or whether it was because Pavarti had been telling people that Harry and Ron were to prank Draco today. They were all thanking them until Neville came up to Hermione and asked her something.

"Isn't Malfoy Head Boy though?" Neville said.

"Yes but I highly doubt he's going to take points, he may be angry but he sees it as fun." Hermione stated.

"Well, until someone takes the jinx off, you know that both of them are going to be in the Head's dorm too, right?" Neville said. Hermione just sat there not understanding fully what Neville was getting at, until it finally dawned on her. Until the handcuff went away Hermione would be sharing a dorm with two Slytherins that might prank her at any given time and just those two together could be extremely annoying. Most of all, they were the two Slytherins, that since she'd met them on that day at Diagon Alley, were acting strangely. If the charm didn't wear off soon, because Hermione felt that it was very unlikely that someone would take it off for them, she'd go mental. Hermione's face suddenly dropped. Hermione turned to face down the end of the table were Pavarti was soaking up the praises for her good idea to join Draco to someone and urgently shouted at her.

"How long until the jinx wears off?!"

"I don't know!" Pavarti laughed, "I didn't tell them a spell!" She said and turned back to her friends.

"It was Ron Hermione-he knew the jinx." Harry said calmly to a freaking out Hermione.

"Ron?" Hermione asked disbelievingly as she looked at him.

"Well Fred and George mentioned it once..." Ron said sheepishly as he knew Hermione wouldn't like it when he told her how long it lasted for.

"Yes but how long are they going to be like this?!" Hermione frantically said trying to restrain herself from reaching over the table and grabbing Ron by the collar on his robes.

"3 days." Ron squeaked as Hermione started to look around herself with a wild look in her eyes.

" .Merlin." She breathed before having a massive freak out, "3 days?! I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THEM FOR 3 DAYS!" Hermione cried out trying to keep her voice down.

"Calm down Hermione. It's not that bad." Harry said trying to stop her from having a massive freak out.

"No you calm down! Every time we've got to go back to the common room they are going to be there! Sure Malfoy was bad enough but now there are two of them! TWO! Do you have any idea what they could do to me?! I'm going to completely lose it in 3 days!" Hermione shrieked but she wasn't going to take points as Harry and Ron were her friends.

"I think you already have..." Ron muttered under his breath.

"That's it! I'm going to look for a way to get rid of this jinx; I'll be in the library." Hermione sighed throwing her hands up in the air and got up from the table.

"You can't take it off. You have to wait-" Ron started before Hermione groaned loudly and threw her hands up in the air again.

"Of course you can't! I have to wait 3-god damn-days! This just gets better and better..." Hermione left the Great Hall cursing under her breath but still made her way to the library as she felt it would help her calm down.

* * *

"Will you stop jerking your hand every 5 seconds?! If you keep doing it mine is going to just snap!" Blaise spat at Draco as they both tried to look through different books to see if they can take the jinx off.

"Well at least I'd have a bit more freedom if it fell off!" Draco snapped back as he threw his book on jinxes and charms across the room. Luckily Madam Pince didn't see and Draco quickly flicked his wand to but the book back, in case she looked up to see a book open on the floor by their table and rightly accuse them of throwing it.

"Here, Repeating charms." Blaise said through gritted teeth as he shoved a book towards Draco. Draco just grunted his thanks and looked at the book. Still staring at the spell in the book, he picked up his wand from the table and practiced the movements whispering the incantation under his breath. Draco believed that he had just about got the spell right when Blaise suddenly nudged him and pointed towards the door to see Hermione walk in.

"Perfect, why wait till tomorrow, right? What should I make her say?" Draco whispered to Blaise as he looked at Hermione evilly.

"Do you want to snog?" Blaise asked more as a question than a statement. Draco snapped his head in Blaise's direction with a confused and disgusted look on his face, "I meant as a repeating phrase you idiot!" Blaise snapped as he whacked Draco round the head with his left hand. Draco had a small embarrassed look on his face before he turned back round to Hermione.

He pointed his wand at her and whispered the words,"_Repetere phrasis. Tu vis ad snog" _

"Did it work?" Blaise asked looking at Hermione as she picked up a book from the shelf in front of her.

"I don't know you idiot! We have to go check, we'll do it now as we need to leave before she finds out that we did this to her." Draco said as he stood up and swaggered over to Hermione.

"Granger." Draco said with a curt nod as he approached her.

"Do you want to snog?" Hermione growled back at them. Draco and Blaise had to try extremely hard not to smirk, snicker or say something back to her that might be a giveaway that something suspicious is going on. Draco just did a slight cough and walked hurriedly out of the library with Blaise before he burst out laughing; once outside they both collapsed on the floor snickering and laughing till their sides hurt. They both received a lot of strange looks from people passing by but nothing could have put a damper on their mood. After a while of rolling on the floor laughing, they finally recovered and shakily stood back up on their feet.

"We _have _to go find Potter and Weasley and do that to them. It's just too funny." Blaise said wiping a little tear away from his eye.

"Not the same one though-a different one-_two_ different ones." Draco said as he collected himself, just then Hermione walked back out this library and as soon as she saw them she looked at them suspiciously. Draco and Blaise looked at each other smirking slightly before turning back to Hermione.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

I had just walked into the library and saw Malfoy and Zabini sitting at one of the tables smirking while a book was laid out in front of them. In my head I thought that they were acting very strangely but I just shook away the thoughts and looked at the different books on the shelves. As I looked though, I had a weird feeling that they were watching me but I tried not to think too much about it because I was just paranoid. Soon though Malfoy swaggered towards me, pulling Blaise along with him, with a smirk on his face. "Granger." He said with a nod.

"Malfoy, Zabini." I growled as I saw the handcuff linking them together. They didn't even reply but just walked away looking as if they were trying to contain themselves, from doing what-I had no idea. Once the door closed I walked over to the table they were sitting at and had a look at the book they were using. "Jinxes, Charms and Curses" I whispered to myself as I looked at the book, causing me to get a weird look from a Hufflepuff that was walking past me. 'Probably trying to rid themselves of the handcuffs' I thought to myself as I placed the book back. I looked around for a couple of minutes before deciding that I had calmed down considerably since I came in here. I walked outside to see Malfoy and Zabini just standing there- something strange was going on. They had left at least 20 minutes ago. They smirked at each other before looking back at me, probably waiting for me to say something. I didn't even look at them, just stared at that stupid handcuff that was linking the two boys together. "You know, you should probably tell McGonagall that you've been handcuffed together." I sighed crossing my arms. They didn't reply, just looked at me again, their eyes shining with confusion and laughter. I started to tap my foot waiting for them to say or even do something at the very least!

"Umm...errr...ummm..." Malfoy stuttered and then looked at Zabini.

"I-I-I...umm...err...oh! Um..._We've_ got to-got to go. See you later Granger!" Zabini said and yanked on the chain pulling Malfoy hastily down the hall after him. I stood there shocked, they were acting very suspiciously and they can't even answer a simple question. They're up to something...

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

We had just escaped Granger thanks to Blaise. After that encounter with her it seems that it's going to be quite hard to understand what she's saying and whenever she talks to us we can't just keep walking away like we just did. It was going to be hard but I think it's worth it.

"I'm surprised you haven't taken her up on her offer mate." Blaise said smirking on our way to look for Potter and Weasley.

"I don't _love _her-I have a small amount of respect for her." I spat at Blaise's stupid accusations. It's true though-I don't love her, I respect her and _maybe _I did have a small crush on her when I was younger-but it's gone now.

"Yeah, yeah. You're just in denial. Shame you stopped liking her though, she's with Weasel now. Can't get any worse than that." Blaise said winking.

"Shut up." I snapped and glared at Blaise who just snickered. We got near to the courtyard when we easily spotted Weasley's red hair in a crowd of people. "Look. There they are. Over there see." I said as I pointed to Weasel's head.

"Oh yeah I see. I want to do the spell though this time." Blaise said as he took out his wand.

"Fine, but I get to choose what he says..." I said and Blaise nodded, "How about...I'm dating Goyle? That one should be interesting..." Blaise nodded his head smirking and pointed his wand at the orange head.

_"Repetere phrasis. Ego adipiscing Goyle." _Blaise whispered. We stood there for a while to see that everyone around him looked at him oddly and started to question him, soon the little Weasel was turning slightly red from all the shouting, "And what about Potter? What should we make him say?" Blaise asked excitedly.

"What about if you make him repeat just _one _word this time?" Someone said out of nowhere which made me and Blaise jump. I turned round to see a 7th year Gryffindor looking at us.

"Who are you and why should we care." Blaise said eyeing her up and down.

"My name is Pavarti Patil. I saw you both just put a repeating charm over Ron and I was just offering help as to what you should make Harry say as you both are most obviously going to do the same to him. I could help you, you know-make sure that they're oblivious to what they're saying, give ideas, tell you what they're going to do to you-I could be some sort of spy, an ally even." She said holding out her hand to the both of us. I looked at Blaise for his thoughts to accepting this girl as an ally. I thought it could be a good idea myself as it would be key to have a spy in Gryffindor for us so that we could find out what the Golden Trio were up to. Blaise just shrugged his shoulders and I took that as an OK.

"Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini." I said curtly as I shook her hand.

She looked at the handcuff and smirked, "Nice bracelet you got there." I just glared at her but she didn't seem fazed, "I saw Ron put it on you myself."

"Know how to get it off?" Blaise asked hopefully.

"I heard the Golden trio mention it once; according to them it'll link you two together for 3 days. No way to get it off." Patil stated. Our faces quickly dropped but she just kept on smirking.

"If you're going to put the repeating phrase on Harry I'd do it now. It looks like he's discovered that something's wrong with Ron. If it were me, I'd make him constantly say 'why'-that can get annoying after a while and besides, it almost fits perfectly with Ron's-you could even make Hermione say something that you can respond to with 'why'. Anyway I'd best be off." She said and walked away. There was something strange about her...I looked at Blaise who only shrugged again.

"We could try it." I said as I took out my wand, pointed it at Potters head and said, _"Repetere phrasis. Quid" _We stood there and watched for a while, soon you could hear them shouting 'why' and 'I'm dating Goyle' all over the courtyard. Me and Blaise looked at each other smirking, before congratulating each other on our handiwork and walking off.


	4. Tricked By a Ferret

"Ron! Harry!" I called after being alerted by Neville that something strange was going on between them, apparently they had been repeating the same thing for over 5 minutes now, were way past frustration and their voices hoarse from yelling at each other. At hearing me shout out to my friends practically the whole courtyard stopped what they were doing and gave me some pretty strange looks, even Harry and Ron stopped and looked quizzically at me. That had been happening quite a lot recently, since I was in the library to be precise, but I can't understand why asking a simple question to some people caused them to stare at me like that. I ignored the stares and ran over to my friends. "What _is_happening?"

"I'm dating Goyle." Ron said simply with a shrug of his shoulders. Now it was my turn to give him one of those strange looks most people seemed to be giving me. Surely I haven't been saying anything like that, right? No, no. Of course I haven't, I'd know if I was coming out with something like that.

"_Excuse me_?" I said flabbergasted, my expression still shocked.

"Why...?" Harry asked unsure giving another one of those strange looks.

"Wait, what?" I said now turning to Harry with a confused expression.

"Why." He said slowly if I was stupid. I looked around, to see if I could get any help. Clearly, everyone else looked as confused as I was; hardly anyone looked like they knew what to do. Still searching the grounds for someone who could help, I spotted a white head of hair that I could recognise anywhere, still chained to his friend walk into the castle laughing.

"I think we're going to go pay a visit to a certain _ferret_." I announced having my suspicions that the chained Slytherin's had something to do with it. The boys made no effort to move; _somehow_ it seemed that they didn't understand half the things I said. I grabbed both of them by their wrists and hurriedly whisked them forward towards the castle.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

"5 galleons that they won't figure out what's wrong with them before dinner." Blaise betted. Once we left the moronic duo and Granger to go back to the dungeons, being as far away from the prank scene not to be counted as suspects, we'd been complaining about how unfair it was that we didn't have any classes today because hearing those three continually repeating the same thing would have been very entertaining for everyone. After we finished complaining and discussing what might've happened (or more like hoped, as in, hoping that the teacher wouldn't take off the charm because it was funny), we took up betting but not all the bets we agreed on. So far if I lost all my bets with Blaise I'd owe him around 15 galleons, but I consider myself extremely lucky and I think it'd be more like Blaise would owe me 15 galleons before the day is done, besides I know that about half his bets are so stupid that you'd be an idiot to get them wrong. Blaise has betted with me: 2 galleons that someone would take Granger up on her offer before the charm is taken off, 1 galleon that someone would beat up Weasley for saying that he's dating Goyle (5 extra sickles if the reason for the fight was because that person loves Goyle), 3 galleons that Potter gets beaten up because everyone was finally starting to get irritated with him, 6 galleons that if they do figure it out, we wouldn't be their first suspects and 6 galleons that it will be Granger who'd figure it out.

"Interesting bet Blaise..." I said considering whether I should take him up on this bet too. On one hand Granger was clever, surely she'd be able to figure out something was wrong soon enough and at least try to fix it with a non-verbal spell, as that be the only way she'd be able to take it off, unless she didn't think there was anything wrong with her... "I think I'm going to have to take you up on that one too; I bet that they'd figure out before dinner."

"Ooooh lucky me! By the end of the day I'm going to be 20 galleons richer!" Blaise sang cheerfully.

"Come on, we both know I'm going to be keeping my money and getting yours." I commented playfully. He gave a look that said 'keep dreaming' while I held back any remark, listening in the distance to a voice and phrase that I knew so well. "4 galleons that Granger already has about 10 hexes prepared for the each of us." I said quietly to Blaise as we looked behind us to see what all the commotion was about. Apparently it seemed that Granger was calling for us in a frustrated voice but with the charm, it was hard to tell what exactly she wanted.

"You're on." Blaise whispered back as the charmed trio made their way towards us.

"Granger! What a surprise!" I said putting on a fake happy voice.

"Do you want to snog?" She said, almost as if she was accusing us of something.

"I'm sorry come again?" Blaise asked 'innocently'.

"Do. You. Want. To. Snog." She said irritated, she obviously has had some trouble with people not knowing what she's saying. Trying to continue pretending to be innocent a bit longer, Blaise and I looked questioningly at Potter and Weasley. They looked just about as confused as we did which was no help.

"Sorry Granger but we have no idea what you're saying; do either of you two idiots?" I asked.

"Why?" Potter spat.

"I'm dating Goyle." Weasley said challengingly. The trio looked at each other confused and even more irritated.

"You know Granger," I drawled, "The title of being The Brightest Witch of Your Age is lost on you. If you can't seem to communicate through words, why didn't you just do this?" I non-verbally cast _'flagrate'_ and wrote in the air with the flame, above Granger's head,_ 'The Stupidest Witch of Her Age.'_She looked at me as if she was about to burst with anger, waved the writing above her head away and took out her own wand.

_'What did you do to us?' _She wrote.

"I can assure you Granger that I have no idea what you're talking about and that we have nothing to do with it." Blaise said calmly trying to refrain from smirking.

_'Oh really? Because this-this-this weird thing happened to me as soon as you two left the library! Everytime I say something people have been giving me weird looks!'_

"Coincidence." I stated with a shrug.

_'You were looking at a book about Jinxes, Curses and Charms! That has to be something!'_

"We were trying to work out how to get this off." Blaise said jingling the handcuff.

_'You were acting extremely suspicious when I was talking to you outside the library.'_

"It is the prank war, how do you know that we weren't planning something for it and didn't want _you _finding out?"

_'Why would you care if I found out? I'm not even participating!'_

"Come off it Granger, I know it was you who gave those buffoons the spell to do this!"

_'It was Ron's brothers actually Malfoy. So then, who are you trying to prank?'_

"Why should we tell you? You'll probably just warn them or take points off being the killjoy that you are."

_'Well, what was the prank then?'_

"Repeating phrases." Blaise stated simply without thinking. I elbowed him hard in the ribs, if Granger didn't piece it all together now, she really was stupid. After a couple of seconds of her thinking, a look of realisation crossed her face.

_'IT WAS YOU! YOU DID THIS TO THEM! YOU PUT A REPEATING CHARM ON RON AND HARRY!' _She wrote angrily in the air. I freely smirked now, having a triumphant expression on my face and not even denying her accusation. I put my hand in front of Blaise, silently asking that he pay up the 17 galleons that he owes me.

"No, not yet. Granger hasn't figured out everything..." Blaise muttered under his breath careful not to let the 'wonder trio' hear that we've been betting on what we've done.

"Well, anything else?" I asked cheerfully, eagerly awaiting my 17 galleons.

_'YOU PUT A CHARM ON ME TOO! THAT'S WHY NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M REALLY SAYING EITHER!'_

"Aha Blaise, the Gryffindor Princess has_ finally_figured it out. How long did it take her?" I asked rhetorically, taking out my silver pocket watch and checking the time, "Only just 2 hours. The Brightest Witch of Her Age indeed." I said sarcastically.

_'Well, I know about Ron and Harry but what exactly have you been making me say all this time for people to look at me like I've grown another head?'_

'They've just been looking at you; no one's actually done anything?" Blaise inquired curiously. Granger looked at the both of us suspiciously, probably coming up with all different kinds of things we could have made her say that would make someone do something to her in that big head of hers. After a while of hesitance, still looking at us curiously, she wrote something.

_'No.' _

Blaise now held his hand in front of me asking to pay up the 2 galleons that he's owed. I shook my head with a look on my face saying 'not yet.' Which is true, the bet was before the charm is taken off, all I had to do was keep it on for as long as possible until someone did actually snog her.

"Oh, well, you're clever aren't you Granger? Top of our class, right." I managed to grit out, my cheerful smile still on my face, "How about this, I'll make a deal with you: I'll take the charm off you once you figure out what exactly you're saying. Shouldn't be too hard for you, right? Good." I said quickly, leaving no room for discussion or disagreements.

"As for your friends..." Blaise said disgustedly at the two idiots who had surprisingly kept silent the whole time, "Well, we'll just take theirs off right now, won't we Draco? No point in letting them suffer for Granger's stupidity." He continued catching on fast. Just as Granger was reaching the point of smoke coming out of her ears she was so annoyed, I grabbed her by her wrist, pulled her towards me and clamped my hands over her ears so that she wouldn't hear how to take it off. I nodded my head in the direction of Blaise and he preformed the spell. As soon as the spell was off them, they started shouting.

"Get your hands off her!" Weasley bellowed.

"'Mione, 'Mione, can you hear us?! The counter-curse is-" Potter said slowly trying to make sure that Granger understood everything he said.

"_Silencio_!" I yelled and pushed Granger back into their arms.

"Now, if either of you two write down the answer a give it to Granger then you'll be getting a lot of trouble from us." Blaise warned.

"See you later Granger, and err...if anything happens, let us know." I said and winked before walking off with Blaise.

"Here are your galleons." Blaise spat annoyed that I'd won three of our deals. I happily pocketed the money (only 13 galleons because he had won 4 galleons), smiling smugly at him.

I patted his face in mock sympathy, "Aww don't look like that Blaise, and you still have you chances left to get more."

"So, how long do you think it'll take before the 'Wonder Trio' figure out that we've left a few loopholes?"

"Loopholes? Why Blaise, whatever are you talking about?" I asked feigning shock.

"Like Potter and Weasley can write it down and give it to someone else to tell her, or than they can at least mouth it to her. Or whether the Brightest Witch will actually realize that to win your deal she could just come up to you and say anything, thus saying what she's been saying all this time and by default figuring out what she's been saying." Blaise replied putting on an intelligent drawl.

"Why Blaise, I had no idea that I was helping those Gryffindors so much. They owe me."

"What could they possibly give the Slytherin Prince as a reward for generosity? Oh, maybe their very own Gryffindor Princess would suffice for the Prince."

"Shut up Blaise."

"Oh come on, every Prince needs a Princess."

* * *

Third Person's P.O.V  
Harry and Ron went on a silent strike, not that they could speak anyway thanks to a certain pair of handcuffed Slytherin's, sending glares to anyone who tried to speak to them. The biggest reason for their mood was that they wanted to help Hermione, they really did, but because they were unable to speak and didn't know any other ideas other than writing it down on some parchment which they were told they couldn't do by the same Slytherin's, although they weren't afraid of them, they didn't feel like taking a chance-they were feeling paranoid, as if they had eyes everywhere watching them. After all if they could be 'charmed' without noticing anything suspicious then anything could happen. And Ron and Harry were quite correct, the Prince and his friend had been getting every Slytherin they saw, and getting the help of their ally to help keep tabs on the Princess. Meanwhile Hermione was trying her hardest not to say anything to anyone now knowing that there was something seriously wrong with what she's been saying for the past hours.

The hours passed without anything going wrong, much to the disappointment of Draco, and it was nearly time for dinner. He really wanted to get those extra 2 galleons from Blaise and he was itching to put his Slytherin characteristics to use if no one did it in the next couple of minutes. A few minutes had passed after Draco's decision and no had snogged her. For that, he was almost thankful, he didn't really know why, but he decided it was because if someone just did it straight away it would only be too easy in her torture. In his mind he went through every boy he knew that was in his year or at least one below, not caring what house they were in, although he thought it would be so much better if he avoided her house. 'What if I did it? She'd be repulsed if it were me. That'd be funny. Although, I'd have to _kiss_ her and she'd probably hex me into next century. No, not me. _Definitely_ not me.' He continued to think of other people that she hates; 'Blaise, no he won't do it so he doesn't have to give me 2 galleons besides I wouldn't like to be so close to them while they make-out, Theo? He used to like Granger...but he's with Daphne now... Goyle? Nah, that blockhead is _more_ than likely to do something wrong. I could always _imperio _him; he'd definitely be likely to get it right if I'm controlling him. Oh, wait! What about Pucey, he owes me a favour. Yes, yes. That's be perfect, it's not like he could refuse-every Pureblood must pay their debt.' Draco thought finally and hurried off to find his victi-ah, _assistant._

"Oi! Pucey!" Draco called into the Slytherin common room.

"Yeah, Malfoy, what d'you want?" Adrian Pucey replied walking up to Draco.

"Remember how you owe me that _favour..." _Draco drawled smirking.

_"_Funny that, I was hoping you'd forget." Adrian sighed.

"I never forget Pucey, keep that in mind. Anyway, back to that favour. Here's what I want you to do..." Draco said and leaned in to whisper his instructions in Pucey's ear.

Dinner came quicker than expected. Hermione was sitting at the Gryffindor table, finding now harder than ever to keep quiet, Ron and Harry were next to her, still in their mood. Adrian was sitting at the Slytherin table, hating Draco more than ever, Blaise was feeling successful that he at least was going to get 2 galleons back in his pocket, and Draco was eagerly awaiting the next couple of minutes when his plan finally commences. After Dumbledore gave his speech and people started eating, Draco kicked Adrian under the table, his smirk still playing on his lips, and nodded his head to the Gryffindor table. With a sigh Adrian got up and walked over muttering, 'Better hurry up and get this over with'. When he got so close to the table that the 'lions' were looking suspiciously at him, he put on a fake smile and walked towards the Golden Trio. 'First things first," Pucey thought, "I have to get her to speak, then I can kiss her."

"Why, hello Granger." Adrian said with a fake friendly voice. Hermione didn't answer, even though she really wanted to tell him to go away, instead she just nodded curtly. "What no hello Granger? I am trying to be nice, you could at least cooperate." Hermione didn't answer even though it was eating her inside. If she was being spoken to civilly she could at least reply to them, even if it was to say go away. Right now, she so badly wanted to question Pucey's suspicious motives. He didn't seem all too sincere at all. "What? That mangy cat of yours got your tongue?" 'Was he trying to joke with me?' Hermione thought. This was all too weird. "Come on, where's your much prized Gryffindor chivalry? One word. That's all it takes. Say _something _Granger." She almost retorted just then but she managed to keep her mouth shut. Why was no one helping her? Why were they all just watching?! "Well, it seems that little miss perfect Gryffindor Princess is a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to being civil and giving people chances." That was it. That was the last straw. Hermione could only clap her hands over her mouth in shock once she basically screamed the charmed words that accidently spilled from her mouth.

"Do you want to snog?!"

A small look of uneasiness crossed Adrian's face before he put his cheeky mask back up.  
"Well, well, well Granger. Quite forward aren't you? But I can't say no to a ladies request, as long as those Weasel's lips haven't been anywhere near yours recently." Adrian said cockily, swaggering over to Hermione and pushed his lips against hers. Hermione gasped in shock while Pucey began to kiss her; once she gained her head again she pushed him away, checked behind her shoulder to see if any professors were looking her way. None were; it seemed that Dumbledore had started to converse animatedly with all the professors directing all their attention to him. Quickly she whipped back around to see him starting to swagger back over to the Slytherin's table. Anger bubbled inside her and in one quick movement got her wand and shot her worst bat bogey hex towards him. It wasn't as good as Ginny's but it was still very aggressive. Soon Pucey was running away from his winged bogeys out of the hall. Looking over to the Slytherin table in a rage her eyes fixed on Malfoy who was, with an air of succession, collecting some Galleons from his friend. Of course it was him! How could she be so stupid?! She marched over to their table angry, feeling that shocked stares of every student in the school on her. As soon as Draco looked and saw the angry Granger he couldn't help but put a smug and satisfied smirk on his face, trying to refrain from snickering. Was this it? Was Granger going to accidently say her charmed words thus falling through the loophole unintentionally and have the spell removed? Or did that quick brain of hers quickly figure it out and was going to write it in the air and then have the spell removed? Quickly before she made it all the way over to him, Draco looked behind her to see Weasley's crimson red face, which clashed horribly from his hair, due to his anger. He allowed his smirk to grow considerably because of seeing that.

Hermione could barely think straight at the moment, she was just so angry. "DO YOU WANT TO SNOG?!" Hermione screeched.

"Ah, well done Granger. You managed to solve it." Draco drawled and winked. Looking at Hermione's slightly puzzled face; he took out his wand and did the counter for it. "Now that you can speak normally Granger, tell me, did you just stumble accidently on one of our loopholes or did you actually know what you were saying?"

"One of your loopholes?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice the loopholes Granger. How many did we put in there again Blaise?"

"At least 3." Blaise said uninterested.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Why not? It was testing your intelligence though, wasn't it? Clever Granger couldn't even find a loophole. Well better get back over to your boyfriend, he looks like he's about to explode, and how was that kiss with Pucey? Never saw that coming." Draco said sarcastically.

"You! You made Pucey kiss me! It was a bet, wasn't it? That's why I saw Zabini giving you money! You filthy snakes!" Hermione spat outraged. But then she considered something and put a sickly sweet smile on her face and judging by Malfoy's slightly scared look, she must have looked like a mental patient, "But thanks Malfoy, and I'm guessing Zabini had something to do with it too. I promised I wouldn't get involved unless someone involved me, which you've done. I'm glad you did though, it was starting to seem like I was going to miss out on something fun!" She said and started to walk away but turned around and called over her shoulder, "Now that I'm game, you better watch out boys! I'm getting you first!"


	5. Anyone For a Toffee?

*Hermione's P.O.V*

"Bouncing Ferret." I said sweetly to the lovely portrait of a mermaid plaiting her beautiful auburn locks. She giggled and granted us entrance to the common room; just as I stepped in I allowed myself a glance over my shoulder to see Malfoy frowning and shooting angry glares at Zabini who was snickering. It seemed that even Malfoy's friend didn't take much notice to him and his glares. It's nice to know that not everybody quivers in their boots just by looking his way _and_ that he doesn't _always _get his own way.  
After dinner McGonagall had spoken to Malfoy and Zabini about Zabini staying in the Head's common room until the chain went. I openly disagreed with the arrangement stating that Malfoy could just go back to the Slytherin dorms but unfortunately it was not meant to be. Of course sleeping arrangements were a bit trickier to sort out but it came to the agreement that one of them got the sofa and the other had to sleep on the floor. I can just predict that there will be an argument _every_ _single bloody night_ between them about who gets the sofa, even though sleeping on the uncomfortable piece of furniture isn't much better than the floor. It must be something about pride. I turned to look at the handcuffed duo and sighed,_ 'Patrolling with them is going to be just perfect.' _I thought sarcastically. "We're patrolling the halls at 10 o'clock and since you two have to go everywhere with each other now I guess that Zabini's coming with us even if he isn't a prefect. Anyway, I'm going to be in my room until we have to go patrol the halls so _unless_ one of you is _dying _don't disturb me." I informed them and then turned to walk away to my room, just as I stepped inside called back to them, "Oh and if you two are going to fight over who gets the sofa and who is on the floor please get it over with _now_, when I get back I want to go straight to sleep and I don't need to be kept awake by your pointless complaining."

* * *

Draco's P.O.V  
"So, you said Granger had some things from Weasley Wizard Wheezes?" Blaise asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, but come on it's her. It's not like she's going to use them, is it?" I dismissed the idea immediately.

"But, she _did say_that she was participating now-doesn't hurt to be remotely aware, right?" I just sighed at Blaise's pathetic attempt to wave off his nervousness. "Do you think that any of the products are in this room?"

"I wouldn't count on it. Potter and Weasley probably have them-she most likely didn't think she'd be joining in and gave it away."

Blaise's eyes widened in shock and he did a small gasp. If he wasn't my pathetic best friend, I would have found it amusing how much fear the small witch created inside his heart. "Do you think she went to her room to go and write them a private note unseen by us to send to them so that she could get the products back?"

"Don't be stupid. She only probably went into her room to stick her nose into another one of much loved books-or just to mess with your overly suspicious mind. Suck up some courage or at least _try_to at least not look scared. I don't want to be chained to you when you're acting like some terrified Hufflepuff."

He shot me a look before answering in a slight superior tone, "All I'm saying is that we've got to keep our eyes and minds open," I rolled my eyes at this, "And not immediately dismiss the idea that Granger possibly couldn't have any Slytherin in her because it's more of a turn on for you than she already is." Blaise finished smirking.

I groaned, Blaise understands my feelings-that I am more than sure of, " I _don't _fancy Gran-" I quickly stopped myself upon seeing Blaise's knowing smirk and only just realising that my tone seemed somewhat defensive. Without so much of a thought back to the previous discussion, I changed the subject to something more along my liking. "So we still on for Saturday with Granger?" I whispered being cautious for her not to hear me even though she was in her room and probably didn't even hear our conversation from before when we weren't even whispering or being remotely aware of the volume of our voices.

"Yeah, if we sneak off during our patrols with her tonight into one of the empty potion rooms I'm sure that we will be able to brew up a sleeping draft in no time, ready for Saturday."

"Perfect. And then, you've know the necessary spells for Wednesday too right, or do we have to go to the library?"

"Of course, but must I do all the work?"

"That's how it works Blaise my dear friend."

* * *

"Zabini _please_, just shut up! I'm not asking you again, next time it'll be a hex personally given by me." Granger groaned rubbing her temples with her fingers.

"I agree with Granger Blaise. At first it was fun to see it irritating her but now it's wearing me down too." I said looking pointedly at my friend. For the past half an hour he had been snapping his fingers, clapping his hands to random tunes and now he had started humming.

"Well I need _something_to do to pass the time." Blaise defended.

"Help us look for students out of bed then!" Granger huffed.

"What _students_?! The halls are completely abandoned!"

Well, you had to admit, he _had_a point.

"Well maybe because you're being so bloody noisy that they heard us coming and left!" Granger took a moment to calm down before without knowing it, giving us a perfect opportunity to go start our little sleeping draft. "You know what, you're just irritating me more. Just...Just go off with Malfoy, not like you have a choice though, and search those halls while I search these. When you're finished go back to the dorm. Okay? Good." She sighed. Blaise and I, not wasting an opportunity, walked back out of her corridor, to the left, down another 2 corridors and down the dungeon steps. I then proceeded to drag him to the very end to a potions classroom that I knew well. Snape's.

"What are you doing?! If Snape comes in here-" Blaise said alarmed.

"He's not going to come in here. He trusts all the students are so terrified of him that they won't ever come in his room and he expects the Head boy, girl and all the prefects to do a good enough job that even _if _a student was stupid enough to try go in his room that they'd be caught by the people patrolling. Calm down, I've thought it all through. Besides, I'm his Godson; he _has_ to be biased to me." I drawled flashing a smirk in Blaise's direction. Reluctantly he agreed and we set about making the potion.  
Roughly about 4 sprigs of lavender, 2 blobs of Flobberworm mucus, 4 doses of Standard Ingredient , 70 ½ minutes, another 2 doses of Standard ingredient and 4 Valerian sprigs later, we had finished the potion with the amused thought that Granger was having some kind of panic attack thinking we're dead.  
"Done." I breathed flicking my wand to finish.

"You're absolutely sure Draco, that Snape won't notice quite a few ingredients are missing from his personal supply cupboard?" Blaise asked on our way out of the room, the cauldron levitating carelessly behind us.

"_Of course_ he'll notice! The man checks all his supplies every minute he can spare! The amount of ingredients he has is eternally etched onto his brain!" I exclaimed. OK, _maybe_ that was a _bit_exaggerated. But it's true, he could recount how much of everything he had off the top of his head.

"So why exactly did we risk our necks to make a sleeping draught under his nose?"

"For the last bloody time, we won't be suspects-would _you_ suspect your own house where your handsome Godson is or would you immediately suspect every other house primarily those pesky Gryffindors with all their pathetic courage? Exactly. Would _you_immediately suspect the Head Boy when he doesn't want to lose his much loved badge so is trying to set a good example to the students? No, of course not. So see, we're off the suspect radar. Now stop acting so suspicious."

"It's hard not to act suspicious when you're listening to a delirious ferret ramble on not making perfect sense. It's a bloody Prank War! Everyone is on the 'suspect radar'! And there is an extremely suspicious cauldron floating behind us!"

"Shut up." I snapped and shrunk the cauldron with a flick of his wand and carefully pocketed it. "Might as well finish patrolling, give Granger more of a heart attack than she's probably already having with us being so late." I said with an amused smirk.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

Where were they?! It shouldn't have taken them more than half an hour to patrol the rest of the halls-we already did more than half of them together! And going on our route we should have seen at least a glimpse of each other. It had been almost an hour and a half since I left them and since then I had tried to get to sleep with no such luck and had been wondering what the bloody hell was taking them so long.  
...What if something had happened to them? At the very thought I burst out of my bedroom and quickly strode to the portrait entrance planning to go and search the halls for them in case they had gotten themselves into some kind of trouble. I blame my impulsiveness and Gryffindor chivalry for just running out without a thought. But just as I was about to reach the exit, the two I was just about to go looking for burst in. At first I was shocked, but that was before anger quickly replaced.  
"Where _have _you been?!" I shrilled sounding quite like Mrs Weasley in the Howler Ron received in our second year. They looked startled at my outburst.

"Patrolling the halls like you asked." Malfoy replied airily.

"_For an hour and a half_?!" I screeched not buying any of that rubbish they were selling me.

"There are a lot of corridors?" Zabini suggested.

"We checked more than half together! You only had to check the dungeons and about 3 other corridors! I would have _seen_you on my way!" I let out a calming breath and continued with an air of suspicion, "So, I'll ask again, where have you been?"

"Told you, patrolling. Now, didn't you say before you left that you were tired and wanted to rest?" Malfoy hinted, brushing off my question.

I narrowed my eyes at him but his demeanour remained indifferent. "You two are up to something, aren't you?"

"And if we are, what's it got to do with you? Maybe we don't want you to find out; people are allowed to keep secrets after all." Malfoy nonchalantly replied.

"_I'm Head Girl_. It's my _duty_ to know what's going on, _especially_if you're out terrorising first years again. Besides last time you didn't want me to find out what you were up to it turned out that you had placed a bloody repeating charm on me. "

"And I'm _Head Boy_but that doesn't have anything to do with anything. Don't worry though, we haven't done anything to you; see we can still understand you. No big deal then. We were just a little slow patrolling the corridors and came back late, okay? No need to get your knickers in a twist."

I was outraged, how _dare _they come back more than an hour late, plainly lie to me and tell me not to get my knickers in a twist! Zabini couldn't even meet my eyes! "A little slow my arse! You must have been going at the speed of a snail. Tomorrow's Saturday and I swear I will make you two pay!" I snapped and made an unladylike shriek of annoyance storming into my room slamming the door behind me.

* * *

Hermione made sure that she woke up extra early that morning, before the sun even rose, so that she was more than sure neither of the two boys had even begun to wake up. Quietly Hermione snuck out of her bedroom, closing the door softly behind her, and tiptoed towards Draco and Blaise's sleeping forms on the sofa and floor. _'Of course Malfoy got the sofa." _She thought as she saw a couple of strands of his white hair splayed on the arm rest, but as she got closer, to her annoyance Hermione blushed. Lying there outstretched on the sofa, looking like some sort of fallen angel was Draco Malfoy in nothing but some Slytherin green boxers. His chest was perfectly toned and sculpted which he could thank to his Quidditch playing and even in his sleep was he radiating some sort of superiority-and of course-Slytherin pride._ 'Dear Merlin help me.' _Hermione internally groaned. Her eyes then flickered away from Draco's chest to look at Blaise Zabini who was more or less _'dressed'_ just like Draco was. "Slytherin's." Hermione quietly muttered. Tiptoeing once more around the sofa, Hermione gave the floor and table a quick once over with her eyes trying to spot their wands. In a twisted way it was quite lucky that she found Blaise's wand discarded on the floor near him so she was able to pick it up without much trouble. However, Hermione soon saw that Draco's wand was clutched tightly in his hand by his face. She knew-she just _knew_that she would soon come to regret this decision. Carefully, Hermione hopped over Blaise's sleeping form but she landed precariously on her one foot and just managed to catch herself in time before she toppled on top of Draco. Her face was though close to his body. Too close. She could practically feel the heat radiating off him, or maybe that was the heat rising to her cheeks? Slowly she planted her other foot on the ground and bent down to his hand's level to try and gently pry the wand out of his hand. Obviously Draco was too exhausted to notice at that moment that someone was one by one, taking his fingers that were wrapped protectively around his wand, off. When his last finger was off Hermione victoriously took the wand and placed it in her pocket, but what she wasn't expecting was that unconsciously, Draco grabbed her wrist. Hermione immediately held her breath waiting for him to open his eyes and demand to know what she thinks she's doing, luckily for her it didn't happen, although he did seem to be stirring. Completely unsure of what to do, but knowing that she needed to get Draco's hand off her not liking the weird tingles she was feeling and not wanting him to wake up soon, she did what her mother used to do when she wanted Hermione to go back to sleep. Hesitantly she stretched out her hand that wasn't being held and awkwardly stroked his hair saying, "Shh..." as softly and gently as she could. Soon he lulled back into sleep and the grip on her wrist softened until she could only faintly feel it. She stayed sat there for a couple more seconds making sure that he was still asleep before getting up and quickly fleeing the common room with 3 wands in her possession.

"At all costs do not let those boys out, understand? Keep the door locked, leave and go visit some other portraits, anything. But do not let them out, even if he is the Head Boy. Oh and, I think the password is in need of a change. We'll change it from Bouncing Ferret to, um...Rainbow Unicorns, OK? Great. Tell Dumbledore of the password change and no one else, understand? Good." Hermione informed the unhappy mermaid that she had awoken from her slumber before dashing off to the Gryffindor common room, which again luckily, she had the password to.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

"My wand! Where's my wand?! Where _the hell _is my wand?! I swear Zabini if you took it-" Malfoy growled as he frantically threw the cushions off the sofa and scanned the floor with his eyes.

"If _I_took it?! Malfoy you've gone mad! My wand is missing too you know! How do I know you didn't take it?!"Blaise exclaimed. I ignored him and turned around, walking briskly towards Granger's room and without knocking flung the unlocked door open. Empty. Completely empty of Granger.

"That settles it then, Granger has taken off with our wands. Problem number one solved. Next problem," I declared calmly as I strode towards the portrait exit before shouting, "Where the bloody hell is she and our wands!" I pushed the portrait with as much strength as I normally do to open it but today it seemed as it wasn't enough.

* * *

"You did _what_to them?!" Harry exclaimed smiling gleefully on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast after they surprisingly found Hermione in the Gryffindor common room early in the morning.

Hermione's cheeks and the tips of her ears turned a faint pink at the memory of retrieving Draco's wand, "I stole their wands, locked them in the common room with the orders to not let them out under any circumstances and changed the password with orders for the portrait to not tell him what the new one is, because I think they're up to something and besides, we could all do a day without either of them two sauntering about."

"Blimey 'Mione, you've got some Slytherin in you." Ron said with a proud sort of smirk.

"Thanks I think. I mean, it's only been like 2 days and they're already rubbing off on me. I miss hanging with you two and the rest of the lions in our den." Hermione said.

"So, you're _sure_'Mione this has nothing to do with the Prank War?" Harry said giving her a knowing look.

"OK, fine, so maybe it does...But it's still a punishment at the same time!"

"Ah, so you're joining in now are you?" Harry asked, his eyes twinkling.

"Well _clearly_Malfoy and Zabini have involved me, so yes."

"That's perfect."

"Well then,without further ado," Ron started clearing his throat, kneeling down on one knee in front of Hermione and gently taking her hands in his," Would you, Hermione Jean Granger, do the honour of being our ally?" Even though Hermione knew he wasn't really proposing, and hoped that he wouldn't for a while, she still turned quite red in the face.

"Harry James Potter and Ronald Billius Weasley, it would be my pleasure." Hermione replied sweetly with a grin.

"Perfect. I'm already thinking up a new plan, we'll call it '_Slytherin Pride'_." Ron said grinning as he got back up on both his feet and continued towards the Great Hall.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

"You're not pushing hard enough!" Blaise complained as I continued to try and budge the portrait open by throwing my entire body weight against it.

"Oh, I'm 'sorry'. Let's see you try, meanwhile I'll just try put my shoulder back in it's socket." I replied sarcastically, stepping out the way for Blaise to have a go.

"Fine but watch _carefully_. You've got to put your back into it see and, oomph." Blaise started lecturing me before I shouldered him flat against the wall with all my weight.

"That hard enough?" I said squishing him harder into the wall. After a minute I let him go, where he collapsed onto the floor trying to regain breaths. "Clearly there's no point in even _trying_anymore more because that portrait is not budging. Granger bloody locked us in here!" I angrily said kicking the wall as hard as I could without breaking my foot. "And-we-can't-even-get-any-food!" I started to punch the wall after every pause.

"Hey, maybe there's something in the cupboards? I mean you have cups and a sink to like wash plates in or something, maybe there's something there like a secret stash of chocolate frogs?" Blaise. Ever the peacemaker.

"Fine," I muttered, "We can look but no promises you'll find anything." We walked over towards the cupboards, me just standing there lifelessly(because really, without my wand there isn't life) and Blaise quickly scanning the contents of each one before moving on. We had just gotten to the last cupboard before Blaise started smiling really creepily.

"Draco! Draco look! Look what I found! Toffees! Hermione has _toffees_! I love toffees!" Blaise exclaimed as happy as a 5 year old at Christmas, with a big smile on his face holding his much loved toffee. "There's _loads _of them! We can eat toffees until Granger gets back!" That seemed like a great idea, if only there weren't flaws; One, I don't like toffees at all so there is no way that I'm even consuming one much less as many as I want until Granger gets back, and two, what if Granger _doesn't_come back?

"That's nice Blaise. Now, if you want you can happily gorge yourself on toffees until she _hopefully_shows her face, but unfortunately for me I don't like toffees and so I'll just starve." I told him looking at the toffee in his hand and purposely not his face otherwise I'd be smiling too. But looking at the toffee and its wrapper, it looked oddly familiar... "Hey Blaise, that toffee looks...never mind. Can I just see it for a sec?"

"No way! You can get your own toffee. Oh wait, here's an idea, _I'll_eat the toffee and then you can have the wrapper." Blaise said and quickly popped the toffee in his mouth before handing me the sticky wrapper. I looked at it closely but nothing came to mind about where I might've seen it before. I turned it over and saw two small gold letters on the clear wrapper before Blaise's strange distorted cries for help sounded in the room. I looked at him and saw that his tongue was suddenly way pass its normal size and was starting to flop out of his mouth, still growing at an alarming rate.

"Oh my Merlin Blaise! What happened to your tongue! Are you alright?! Are you having a reaction to the toffee?! What is it?!" I exclaimed immediately worried at the size of his growing tongue. What if he was having a reaction to the toffee and he just_ died_? I'd be dragging around a dead body! What if people blamed _me_ for his death?! If that happened, without question, I'd blame his death on Granger for locking us in with no escape. I looked frantically at him, searching him quickly with my eyes to see if there was anything else that was noticeably wrong with him; clearly he wasn't having some sort of allergic reaction because he was still able to irritably mumble something to me which came out incoherent because of his fat tongue. Quickly I searched the floor for the clear wrapper which I dropped when I saw Blaise's condition. Soon I found it and made out the two letters to be W's. Weasley Wheezes. _Of course_! This toffee was obviously one of the products she got off them, whether she was ever planning on using them, be it on ourselves or someone else is an entirely different matter. That's where I'd seen it before! _Ton Tongue Toffee_. Problem was, I may now know what was wrong with him but I had no idea how to stop it from growing. I was thinking very hard about what options I had, when I felt something slimy on my wrist. Looking down, I saw that it was Blaise's tongue. No matter how much I didn't want to touch his wet tongue; I grabbed it with my hands and yanked it hard, smirking at the small yelp he emitted. Once that was done, I didn't want to touch it any longer and threw it away from me. "Don't you _dare_ let your tongue touch me again." I sent Blaise a glare to make sure that he understood although my eyes were twinkling with amusement. They may be Weasels but they sure know how to make a good product. I continued with my thinking on how to stop his tongue growing based on the fact that they're Weasley's and they are most likely not the smartest, so the solution should be pretty easy. So easy the answer completely evaded me. "Where's Granger when you need her." I groaned.

* * *

My stomach rumbled loudly almost rivaling the sound of thunder we could hear in the distance from the thunderstorm that had started recently. It had been almost 4 hours since Blaise consumed the Ton Tongue Toffee and a couple of minutes after that I had remembered that there was no point in even trying to stop his growing tongue because that bloody witch had stolen our wands. I bet some part of her knew that we'd find the toffees. Either way, she still hadn't come back to the dorm and we'd given up in trying to get out. After a while watching in amazement as Blaise's tongue grew to about 2 feet in like less than 2 minutes had gotten boring and I had only managed to use it as a skipping rope for a minute before Blaise yanked his tongue back into his possession because it _'hurt'_ or something like that. Really, it hurt _me_that he stole away my only source of entertainment. Right now, we were slumped on the floor in the exact same place where his tongue had started growing. Right now, Blaise's tongue wrapped around half of the common room.

And right now, I could hear the voice of our saviour sounding right outside the common room...


	6. The Longest Three Days of My Life

Draco's P.O.V

OK...maybe it wasn't our saviour exactly. More like the devil in the form of a saviour. Pansy Parkinson. Apparently she had been threatening the mermaid to give her the password for a couple of minutes, the painting thinking that she was just giving empty threats refused to give her the password(which has apparently been changed thanks to Pansy who had told me what it was), but wholeheartedly agreed when she set it on fire. So, Granger and the stuck up teachers aren't going to be happy to hear from the mermaid or see the scorch marks on it. Thankfully Parkinson had her wand with her and once entering the dorm (after she insulted Granger several times and flirted disgustingly with me) managed to sort Blaise's tongue out, which was quite a surprise because really, I thought she was quite thick.

Well, actually, she is quite thick. It still surprises me that she actually thought were serious.

_"Pansy, we can't thank you enough." I smiled at her, as Blaise tried to gain feeling in his tongue again, luckily keeping him quiet whilst I did the charming._

_"No, really its fine. I just can't believe Granger locked you in here without any food. Stupid mudblood. Thinks she's better than everyone else." Pansy said softly. She was practically a pile of goo on the floor because of my presence. So many ways I could use it to my advantage..._

_"Tell you what Pans; we'll give her hell from all of us. Well, we would, if we had our wands..." I sighed dramatically hoping she took the bait._

_"Here take mine; I'm not the best at jinxes or hexes." Pansy said quickly, taking her wand from her pocket and thrusting it at me. Oh this is just too easy._

_"Really Pansy, you sure?" I looked at her questioningly. A witch or wizard should never be without their wands, if she was just going to give it to me without any cause other than she is obsessed, then she really is stupid._

_"No really it's fine. Here then Draco, take it. You're the best at spells." She placed it in my hands and I once again felt the strange tingle of magic, although it felt more unusual as it wasn't my wand._

_"You're amazing Pans. Tell you what, you stay here and we'll find Granger, curse her so bad she'll be with Madam Pomfrey till the end of the year and I'll be back for you." I 'promised', waggling my eyebrows suggestively (even though it made me sick to my stomach)_

_"Really?! What about the handcuff though?" It was amazing how you could see how much she brightened up._

_"Nothing to worry about. It'll be gone by the time we come back, don't you worry. I'll see you later." I said winking slyly. I could just tell that Blaise was once again able to communicate and I used that once again to my advantage._

_"You know Blaise, with girls I don't like peppermint breath or apple scented breath, do you know what I like?" I lowered my voice so it seemed like I was only talking to Blaise, but loud enough for Parkinson to hear and I knew she would be listening. We walked towards the portrait entrance 'in conversation'._

_"Cherry? I don't know mate, what?" Blaise was so good at catching on and playing along._

_"Toffee." I said._

_"Toffee?" Blaise asked._

"Toffee." I affirmed with a nod. "Like the ones in the cupboard by the sink. They are my favourite toffees." We exited the common room with Parkinson's wand and told the portrait to lock her in there, which she happily agreed to still seething from her tail being set alight. We waited until we heard her shriek once we suspected she realised that the toffees made her tongue grow, high fived, and then set off on our quest to find the annoying bitc-I-err mean, witch.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

"Hey Hermione, I thought you said that you locked Malfoy and Zabini in the Head's Dorm." Ron told me sitting up from our position on the floor.

"What? I did. See, I've got their wands. There's no way that they could've gotten out."I told him also sitting up and getting their wands from my back pocket. He was confusing me. I know what I did and I made it so that they were stuck in there until I got back which would be later in the evening. No one else could possibly know the password and besides, even if they did I changed it so there's no way anybody could know.

"No. Look they're there, chained together and everything. They're even scowling-how could it not be them?! You know, I have a theory that neither of them know how to smile." Ron said grinning and pointing at them. I laughed quite loudly but quickly clamped my hands over my mouth as I think my laugh is the most awful sounding thing in the world.

"Don't be ridiculous Ronald, how could it be them?" I said still amused as I shifted myself around on the grass so that I could look behind me to see...one angry ferret and his accomplice snap their heads in our direction. I gasped. "How'd they get out?" I whispered mostly to myself.

"I don't know but they're coming this way. Better move or face being murdered-who knows what the ferret is capable of." Ron said standing up and picking up the picnic blanket, shrinking it and stuffing it in his pocket before taking my hand and pulling me along as we broke into a casual jog.

"It'll be impossible to avoid them all day." I huffed out of breath once we reached the top of the hill.

"What happened 'Mione? I thought you liked a challenge." Ron said amused. Clearly he was enjoying it a bit too much.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V  
"They ran off!" I exclaimed as we reached the exact place where we saw Granger and Weasley together only a few minutes prior.

"Why would they possibly do that? It's not as if she's in danger of being attacked." Blaise said sarcastically.

"_Please_. We're not going to hurt her." I scoffed feigning innocence and smirking.

"We're not?" Blaise asked. Oh Blaise, so stupid.

"Of course not Zabini. There's no need. At the feast tonight we're drugging her then strapping her on a broom and sending her off flying. That, for her, is punishment enough." I told him. He nodded, now smirking as well.

"But we still need our wands. How we going to get them off her?"

"We just need to get her on her own and then corner her."

"That'll take too much time-can't we just go right up to her?"

"_Fine_." I sighed. "We'll do it the 'imaginative' way." I looked around to try and spot that shockingly ugly red hair that belonged to the Weasel. "Now where did they go..."

"There! By the castle! They ran up the bloody hill!" Blaise shouted pointing to the couple who were just walking through the front doors. I groaned, this was going to take all day.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

"Wait, wait. They've _escaped?!_" Harry ask astounded.

"Yeah, they came looking for me a minute ago. They seemed pretty irritated." I informed him.

"Wouldn't imagine them not to be, you locked them in a room without their wands. I'd be irked." Harry said with a eye roll.

"Hey! This morning you said that it was a brilliant idea!"

"Yeah...but..." Harry shrugged.

"Look, here's what you're gonna do. You take Draco's wand," I said handing Draco's wand to Harry and Blaise's to Ron, "And you take Blaise's. We'll keep alternating through the day but when night comes, I'll be needing them both back."

"OK Hermione whatever you say, but why?" Ron asked pocketing the wand.

"So they'll never know who has it. So _I_, at least, don't have to avoid them all day."

"Oh look, they're coming. Even from this distance you can see Malfoy's shockingly ugly white hair."

"Better get a move on you two. I'll give you as much time as possible."

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

"Expecting something Granger?" I asked as we approached her. She was just standing there alone in the middle of the hallway rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet, seeming all too innocent.

"Not at all Malfoy." She said smiling sweetly.

"Well, I am and so is Blaise. Care to give them over then?" I said mocking her 'politeness' and putting my hand out expectantly.

"I have nothing to give over to you." She said continuing with her sickly sweet charade.

"Very funny Granger. Now, stop with that smile unless you want that bushy head of yours covered in vomit." Thankfully she actually stopped smiling altogether. "Better. Look, I know you have our wands and I'm _more_ than sure you liked the welcoming view you had when you came to get them, but it's been long enough. I'd like to feel the electricity of magic course through my body again. Just hand 'em _over_." I smirked and threw in a wink just for good measure. I was rewarded with her turning a brilliant shade of brick red.

"Like I said, I don't _have_anything to give over to you. Get it Malfoy? I don't have your wands." Her brown eyes twinkled teasingly. "Besides, it seems that you have a replacement anyway." She said eyeing Parkinson's wand in my robe pocket.

"What? This piece of rubbish? _Please_. It's Parkinson's wand-doesn't even _feel _as powerful as mine. The best it could do is probably kill a fly, in _my_ hands anyway. Get it Granger? I'm not going to use it-doesn't understand me. _Comprende? . .Back." _I snapped at her mimicking her voice.

"Well. ' .It. Believe what you want." She stressed. I eyed her studiously before reaching the conclusion that she was most obviously lying. No matter what anyone said Hermione Granger could lie. She probably called it acting, but it was the same thing.

"Get her Blaise." I snapped as we both lunged forward and picked her up by her arms. She squirmed, trying to wriggle out from our grip but she was unsuccessful. Together we lifted her into a nearby alcove. We set her down and blocked the exit with our larger forms, and then I searched her with my hands determined to find our wands while Blaise just reluctantly helped. It was like he believed her that she didn't have them. What rubbish!

"Oi! What _are_ you doing! Watch where you put your hands! Hey! Get your filthy hands off me! Parkinson might like this but I could do without being touched up by you two idiots! You slimy flithy snakes! I still have _my_wand you know-the words are on my lips!" She snapped continuously at us all the while still squirming as much as she could and slapping our hands away. I tried to ignore the tingles that shot up my hand as I searched her for our wands. Clearly, Granger was actually telling the truth. Who'd have thought?

"Well, this feels powerful. Vine wood, hm? Dragon heartstring, easiest to turn to the dark arts you know? Smart core this, dragon heartstring. Seems Granger has a powerful dark wand." I said toying with her wand which I plucked from her pockets. I don't know much about wands to outdo Ollivander, much I know this much. I smirked at her perplexed expression.

"How do _you _know whether dragon heartstring is easy to turn to the dark arts? The same core Malfoy? Have you been using it for dark arts?" She asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

"No actually. Funny that, mine is actually unicorn hair core. The _hardest _to use the dark arts for and it's not as powerful as your core." I said using my voice to hint something unspoken to her. I continued to feel Granger's wand loving the much more powerful buzz I got from holding it as opposed to mine. But however much more I liked the electricity, it _still _wasn't the familiar feeling I loved with my wand.

"What are you trying to say Malfoy?" Her eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

"I don't know Granger. Long lost daughter of the Dark Lord are we? Or any other Death Eater perhaps?" I shrugged, speaking in an everyday tone. I glanced at her fuming face and raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up." She snapped and then eyed her wand in my hand. Why hadn't she taken it back already? Silly Granger. "And give it back, it's mine not yours. Don't touch what you can't afford."

"Good thing I'm a Malfoy then and I can afford anything I want. If I want a new wand, I can get one."

"Yes but unfortunately for you, the wand has to choose the wizard and you'll never get a dragon heartstring like me." She said unemotionally and put her wand back in her pocket.

"_Alright, anyway_. Where are they then Granger? The wands. Where'd you hide them?" Blaise asked changing the subject and raising an eyebrow.

"Like I'd ever tell you." She sniffed indignantly. I surveyed her once again, reading her like an open book. She may not tell us, but come on, where-or more like _who_-else would have it? I glanced at Blaise out of the corner of my eye and I could tell he was assessing the situation too.

"Right, let's go then Blaise. I don't know about you, but I know where I'm looking next. Thanks Granger." I said and allowed myself to wink at her also giving a mock salute before exiting the alcove to look for her idiotic friends. Leaving, I heard her huff in annoyance before leaving in the opposite direction from where we went probably hoping she's find her friends first.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

"Look, just give it back Ron! They're looking for you-they know you have them!" I urged looking wildly around the corridor for any trace of Malfoy or Zabini.

"How could they possibly know?!" Ron pushed, holding Zabini's wand out of my reach.

"Well...erm...it's not that hard to guess, is it? If I don't have them, who else would I trust with keeping them in possession? Just-just give it." I said brushing off the question quickly. I know Malfoy's smart, with his rich family there's no surprise, but there is no way that I'll admit his intelligence out loud. Especially to my best friend and boyfriend. "Come on! Harry's already given Malfoy's!" I said jumping up trying to grab it from his hand.

"Oh yeah? You mean...this wand?" Ron teased, pulling the Hawthorne wand from my pocket with his free hand and holding above his hand with Zabini's.

"Ron this isn't funny!" I said jumping and then searching around the corridor. "Merlin! They're coming! Ronald I swear-" I said and then shoved him hard in the stomach making the wands fall from his hand as he doubled over clutching his stomach. "Sorry Ron but I had to do it. Cover me! Bye, see you later!" I called behind me to Harry and Ron as I made a mad dash down another corridor. Seriously, how can those two even move so fast? They're chained together for Merlin's sake!_ 'Damn, damn, damn! They saw me! Back to the Head's! That'll be best! They don't even know I changed the password.' _I thought cunningly as I smirked internally to myself.

"Rainbow unicorns." I muttered out of breath to the mermaid. Luckily she heard me and opened the portrait. Before I went in I glance over my shoulder to see them just skidding round the corner and trying to re-balance themselves before continuing on their sprint. I jumped in and slammed the portrait shut. "I'm safe...for now..." I sighed to myself. Or so I thought. It seemed in my absence, someone had got in the Head's room and found the Ton Tongue Toffee's. I shouldn't have even been surprised to find it was Parkinson. Her tongue had managed to go from the kitchen(if you could even call it that), around the common room at least twice before being flopped over the red sofa. Just as I was about to slink away into the corner to hid from her (although I have no idea why seeing as she was completely unarmed and harmless in her state) when I heard some heavy footsteps and someone practically roaring the new password. Before two angry Slytherin's burst in, all I could think of was, _'How'd they know the password?'_

* * *

Hermione Granger stood frozen in place as an angry looking Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini stood opposite her practically seething. She was almost positive that if they got any angrier smoke would be coming out their ears. Well, she may have thought it but she didn't think it'd actually happen. It seemed that smoke had literally started flowing out of Draco's ears.

"Are you smoking?" Hermione asked curiously. 'What _had_happened?'

"Yes actually, I am. Know why? I bet you do." Draco ground out through clenched teeth. He was not happy. Not happy at all.

"What gave you the impression that I know why?" Hermione asked indifferently.

"Well, just as we shoved your pathetic excuses for friends out the way to come after you, Weasley said something along the lines of:"

_"Quick, quick! 'Mione said to cover her." _Blaise said in the worst impression of Ron, Hermione had ever heard.

"And then Boy wonder said:" Draco drawled on.

"_I don't know what to do! You do something!" _Blaise said this time doing a horrible impersonation of Harry. "How he won the war is beyond me." Blaise commented with an eye roll.

"Then guess what Weasley did? The clever little sod set my bloody hair on fire! My hair was a shade of orange rival to his disgusting mop!" Draco practically screamed and Hermione had to try her hardest not to commend her boyfriend's efforts and laugh at the clump of singed hair in Draco's hand.

"Well in other news it seems Parkinson found my stash of Ton Tongue Toffees and somehow got into the dorm. Any thoughts?" Hermione said sickly sweet, changing the subject.

"Not _only_Parkinson." Draco muttered still glowering but a hint of amusement appeared in his eyes. "And stop acting sweet to try and buy yourself time. You're like some ugly Hufflepuff."

"Parkinson _happened _to save us from your childish behaviour, so it'd be good if you'd save her from the horror that is now her tongue." Blaise spat. It seemed, for him, that the toffee business was still quite a soft spot. Reluctantly Hermione agreed. It seemed that they both were bubbling with anger and she didn't want to be the one to tip them over the edge. Besides, Pansy was asleep. She couldn't do much harm to Hermione if she was asleep.

"Fine. I'll reverse her tongue, but I want her thrown out of the dorm the second it's back to normal." Hermione snipped. She walked over to her unconscious body, the Slytherin's close behind, being careful not to step on her tongue. When she reached her, Hermione made sure she took out _her_ wand and muttered, _"reversio." _Then, like some weird tape measure, Parkinson's tongue started to shrink and was quickly whizzing around the room before snapping back in her mouth. "Now get her out." With no complaints both boy's picked her up and walked over to the portrait, swinging it open, and almost literally threw Parkinson out and down the stairs if Hermione didn't stop them. "What do you think you're doing?!" She demanded.

"Throwing her out like you asked." Draco replied smirking.

"I didn't mean literally!"

"Whatever. We're throwing her out. I know your Gryffindor chivalry demands this of you Granger, so feel free to conjure up a soft landing for her." He said and muttered to Blaise, "One. Two. Three." And they both let her body go flying. It was shocking that even falling through mid air didn't wake Pansy up. In sleep she was dead to the world. Muttering under her breath about how despicable they were, with lightning fast reflexes, Hermione conjured a mountain of pillows on the floor for a comfortable landing. Even when she landed she didn't wake up. Hermione had a horrible feeling that maybe she should have checked Pansy's pulse. "Now, unless you want the same fate as Parkinson, 'cept we'd throw _you _where the pillows aren't, hand over our wands now."

"I shouldn't really considering what you've just done, and you've insulted me, assaulted me-" Hermione listed.

"_Assaulted_? _Please _Granger, we were merely looking for our wands. My mistake if I thought you were lying." Draco defended.

"And plainly lied to me yesterday to which I still haven't got a proper answer to. So, why should I?" Hermione continued on as if Draco hadn't just interrupted her.

"Because I love my wand and I miss it and I want it back? And look," He said walking over to the portrait and lobbing Pansy's wand across the hall, "I'm completely defenseless. A wizard without a wand-how utterly sad, don't you think? Anyway, it's against the law. Don't want to get in trouble with the ministry, do you?"

"Fine." Hermione spat and threw their wands at them. "But next time your late back from patrols I want a proper answer and those wands better not be pointed at me any time soon." She sent a warning glare to both of them before walking off into her room.

"Course not." Draco muttered sarcastically finally happy to have his wand back in his hands where it belonged.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

Only half an hour before dinner started did me and Blaise finally managed to persuade (more like bully) a house elf that worked in the kitchens, to put our little sleeping draft in Grangers drink. The perfectly made potion would take roughly about an hour and a half before it kicked in, luckily that'd be towards the end of dinner by which point Blaise and I would be able to ask her to come with us for something vague like Head's duties and her clouded mind would agree. Ah, the beauty of magic. We'd then walk with her in the corridors and catch her before she hits the ground. Next we'd lug her back up to the Heads Dorms where no one would know about her condition and keep her there until very early morning when we'd carry her onto the Quidditch pitch and strap her onto my broom unfortunately, all in time for Slytherin's Quidditch practice. Fool proof.  
And for you idiots who are questioning why we'd go through all the trouble to drug her when we could just carry her out onto the pitch when she's asleep, are not worthy of an answer. Use your heads! Use your logic! If you can't figure out why we'd knock her out so that way she wouldn't wake up then you definitely don't belong in Ravenclaw.  
Anyway, when time for everyone to enter the hall came me and Blaise had joined and blended in with the early crowd of students. We casually made our way over to the Slytherin table and sat down, calmly waiting for the Gryffindor Princess and her stupid friends to make their appearance.  
Thankfully the Trio showed up and took their usual places. I wasn't too sure about what Blaise was doing; I wasn't paying much attention to anything else except when the key moment Granger took her first sip from her goblet happened. Praise to Merlin that the first sip happened only 10 minutes in, but on the downside the amount it looked like she drunk would only knock her out for about less than an hour. For it to go all according to plan she needed to drink all of it. At the very least half.  
Whilst I was contently watching the Princess making sure that nothing went wrong, I was oblivious to what was happening on my own table. Blaise could be telling them that I'm head over heels with Granger, which would explain my staring for all I know. It was something he'd do. Taking a quick glance at everyone it seemed that no one was bothered really. Shouldn't really surprise me, we weren't known as the most caring house. That belonged to those stupid Hufflepuff's. Well, I might as well as try not to look like an outcast in my own house. I am the Slytherin Prince after all. Taking a better look at each person I could see that numerous people have been attacked in the Prank War. This is where the interesting bit comes in, trying to guess what house did it to them; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw. Maybe the Hufflepuff's grew some spines and took a chance at us. And of course, never overlook your own house. You have enemies everywhere.  
Right, now let's see; Daphne Greengrass, same year as me, had flowers growing from the top of her head as opposed to her usual black hair. Ravenclaw definitely, that charms work could only be achieved by one of them. Theodore Nott, same year as me also, had his hair changing colour every minute. Colours ranging from blue to silver, then from green to red-practically all the colours of the rainbow. Hmm...Tough one...It could be Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but judging by the way the others are sniggering, I'm guessing it was one of us. Goyle, one of my clueless minions, seemed to have his robes dyed a bright shade of pink. A Hufflepuff could have pulled that off. I'm surprised that he doesn't know how to change them back after all these years at school; it was only a simple charm to reverse it. Who else was there...?  
I was quickly brought out of my reverie but Blaise who elbowed me hard in the stomach. "What?!" I snapped at him. He didn't answer, merely just smirked and nodded over to the Gryffindor table. Taking a curious glance over to where she was sitting, I could only barely see that the Princess was swaying ever so slightly. Only Blaise and I could tell that there was something wrong with her as we were the ones to drug her in the first place and therefore knew what to look for. Anyway, it didn't look as if many of her housemates were paying much attention to her. I smirked, _'The potion should knock her out soon.' _I looked back at Blaise my eyes twinkling with mischief. I love it when a plan comes together. We casually stood up and made our way over to the Gryffindor table ignoring all the conspiratorial whispers and death glares we received. Confidently we strode over to Granger knowing that she was completely out of her mind, if Blaise himself leaned in for a kiss she'd be no the wiser with what's going on.

"Granger." Blaise and I acknowledged.

"Zabini, Malfoy?" Granger replied in return but there was a hidden question there somewhere, I think I was the only one who noticed though.

"Hey um Granger," I said gaining her attention back to me. I looked quickly at the professors table to see who was missing so I could use their absence as an excuse. _'Please! Who am I kidding?! Granger probably doesn't even know how many fingers she has. I could tell her Merlin himself wanted to talk with her.'_"McGonagall wants to see us straight away in her office-something about Heads Duties."

"Oh. OK. I'll see you later." She said calmly and stood up from her place on the bench, albeit wobbling a bit and seeming to stifle a yawn. Ignoring the confused remarks and questions coming from her friends and housemates who finally decided to pay attention to what she was doing now that we showed up, like a gentleman I lead her out of the hall by her side. She looked like she was about to drop any minute. We walked in the direction of McGonagall's office in silence, still keeping up the charade that that was where we were actually going. Minute after minute Granger started to find walking just that bit more of a struggle, once or twice I had to grab hold of her elbow and keep her that bit steadier so that she could keep walking. It was only a couple of feet from the door to her office before Granger took a large lurch forward before collapsing backwards in a deep sleep. Luckily I was watching, and counting down the estimated seconds, so I was quite ready to catch her before she hit the ground. Strangely it felt as she fitted perfectly in my arms and I didn't want to let her small figure go in a brief second of madness. Quickly I shook off the foreign feelings before they drove me into further insanity.

"Here, put her down and I'll levitate her behind us." Blaise said getting his wand out.

"No, no. That'll look suspicious." I said.

"In front of us then." Blaise amended.

"No. Here, you carry her." I told him and before I felt even more contentment holding her, handed over Granger's limp body over to him which he awkwardly took. Once she was completely in his arms, I could see that there was no way he could possibly keep that hold on her all the way over to the Quidditch pitch. "Look, you're holding her wrong. You hold her like a dead body not a sack of flour!" I said throwing him an exasperated look.

"I wouldn't be holding a dead body! It'd be levitating behind me, like, if I had my way, she would be!" Blaise snapped.

"OK, OK fine." I sighed. "Like holding an injured body then."

"Still no!"

"A baby? A really big baby?"

"No, here look, you just take her. This'll be the closest you'll ever get to holding her anyway. So here. Be grateful about it." He said and shifted Granger back into my arms. I had to shuffle her about a bit before her body settled in the perfect position. _'Oh great. Now the feelings have come back. The quicker we get back to the dorm, the quicker I can let go of her and the quicker the feelings will stop. And just my luck that the only route that will get us back without running into anyone takes about an hour. If not longer.'_ I internally groaned. _"But what if you don't want to let go of her?"_A voice that sounded suspiciously like Blaise sounded in my head contradicting my own thoughts. It was almost as if I could feel my sanity slipping away.

"For the record, this is how you carry someone."

"Amazing." Blaise muttered sarcastically. "Now let's get a move on before everyone finishes dinner."

A good hour later and we had finally arrived back in our comforting dorm. I stumbled on all of the steps leading up to the common room before tripping on the last one and falling face first into the carpeted floor, Granger's unconscious body unaware of what was happening, instead lying peacefully on the floor beside me and underneath the weight of my arm. I'd thought I'd be too tired to notice but I was thoroughly surprised when a third body didn't come tumbling down. My eyes quickly snapped to my wrist to see the magical remains of the handcuff drifting into the atmosphere, I then looked up to see Blaise's shocked face. "Blimey! It's been three days already!" I said laughing which made me sound almost hysterical.

"Three days indeed! The longest three in my life!" Blaise said in the same hysterical manner as I suspected I did, turning his wrist over in case there was some hidden difference. "Ha! It's finally off! FREEDOM! Aha! I can go back to the dungeons! See you Draco!" It was like he got a sudden burst of energy and giving a quick wave, a promise to meet me early for the Slytherin practice on the pitch with Granger, ran out of the common room and presumably back to the Slytherin common room. A wave of tiredness swept over me and the floor suddenly felt very inviting. Not bothering to move anymore then to get in a more comfortable position I quickly fell asleep.

And in all my sleepy haze, I completely forgot about the body that I was lying next to...


	7. Hermione the Backseat Slytherin Seeker

A loud scream filled the whole castle in the early hours of the morning waking everyone up from their peaceful slumber, well everyone except for one Hermione Granger. The shout came from the complete opposite end of the castle where the Head's Dorm resided and straight from the mouth of a terrified Draco Malfoy. Well, maybe not terrified...more like shocked. He had just woken up from his night on the uncomfortable floor and was still living in the lands of yesterday thinking that he was still handcuffed to his friend, Blaise, and had lost the argument over who gets the sofa. So imagine his surprise when he rolled over to glance at the sofa only to come face-to-face with the Head Girl who was still sleeping next to him on the floor. His first thoughts were ones of horror that somebody had managed to break in and turn Blaise into Hermione, which would mean he'd have to endure her annoying ways, but then he saw that there wasn't a handcuff on his wrist anymore and sighed happy that he was finally free. But then his thoughts twisted into even more horrifying words and imaginative pictures, _'What if I slept with Granger?!' _His eyes were wide like dinner plates and his mouth hanging open; all in all it would've been funny if Draco's brain wasn't in turmoil. He quickly gathered enough courage to take a proper glance at her, and thankfully when he did, she was fully clothed in her robes. He let out another relieved sigh. After about a minute Draco's mind finally became unclouded and he remembered what exactly was supposed to be happening. Taking out his pocket watch, Draco checked the time; 8:30 am. "Right...30 minutes to have a shower, get in my Quidditch robes, grab my broom and drag Granger down to the Quidditch pitch." He muttered to himself. Without wasting anymore necessary time, Draco ran to the bathroom to have the quickest shower he could (but long enough to make himself look as handsome as always), dried himself with magic, then hurriedly donned his Slytherin Quidditch robes and grabbed his Nimbus 2001. Walking back into the common room where Hermione was lying Draco briefly thought about whether he should transfigure her school robes into Quidditch robes like his, before pushing it to the back of his mind as he had more important matters to think about, such as how he was going to get Hermione to the pitch without being late-he was captain after all. He checked his watch again; 8:55 am. There was no way that he could make the journey to the pitch in 5 minutes or less; unless...

Draco looked to the opened double windows that over looked the Black Lake. He could easily, although it would require a bit of skill, lug Hermione onto his broom and then get on himself and fly over to the pitch...He'd get there on time that way...Taking a quick concluding glance at her limp body on the floor, judging how hard it would be to place her on his broom hovering hundreds of meters from the ground without dropping her, Draco made his decision. But stepping back and thinking even more carefully about how he was supposed to get an unconscious body onto a broom where she could potentially fall to her death, he decided to tweak his plans a bit, all the while praying that it would work. Jogging over to Hermione, he lifted her up from underneath her arms and dragged her body across the room towards the windows. Dumping her on the floor once again, Draco grabbed his broom and leaned out of the window as far as he could without falling before carefully letting it go, making sure it hovered. He then propped Hermione against the window making sure that he could easily levitate her once on his broom. Once she was placed so she wouldn't just topple over, Draco climbed onto the windowsill. He gathered his meagre amount of courage (Well, there had to be a bigger reason why he wasn't in Gryffindor.) and looked towards his broom hovering 15ft away from him. "Oh Granger you're going to pay for this." He irritably muttered to himself, "You've got it easy if I make it. You're just going to be bloody levitated onto this broom! I have to jump!" Closing his eyes he prayed to Merlin and Salazar and _even_ to Godric for a little bit more courage. Quickly he opened them and before he could change his mind, he launched himself onto his broom. For a few moments he just felt himself soaring through the cold autumn air and he briefly wondered if he launched himself too far or not far enough, then thinking that if he had, he just prayed to Godric Gryffindor for nothing. _Never _again.

Luckily though, all thoughts were cut short as he suddenly felt the familiar smooth wood of his broom between his legs. Draco was so relieved that he actually lived; he almost didn't notice that he was sliding forward off the broom. Bringing his head back down from the clouds, Draco grabbed the handle with both his hands and readjusted himself to keep balance and make enough room for Hermione to fit on. Pulling out his wand from his pocket, Draco quickly uttered the charm and soon had Hermione drooping over the front of the broom with his hand around her waist to keep her from falling off. Unfortunately for him, a fraction of his dreaded feelings returned. In an attempt to clear his head of them he zoomed as fast as he could on his Nimbus 2001, which was being partially slowed down by the added weight, to the pitch for training.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

My team were just walking out of the locker room by the time I made it to the pitch, which was also lucky because we really needed a better way to sort out how Granger is going to stay on my broom. Practically less than half of her was actually on the broom. And on another note it might be an extremely good idea to transfigure her into some robes considering she's still wearing her skirt...

"Nice of you to actually show up, _Captain_." Blaise remarked sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm here aren't I?" I said grinning. Blaise was the only one who could ever get away with such remarks.

"Along with a mudblood." Some random 5th year piped in. Looking over to his bulky build and his arrogant posture, I had already decided in a split second that I didn't like him one bit.

"And _who _are you and even more importantly _why _should I care?" I spat him also sending a scathing look in his direction.

"_I'm_Alex Knight-I'll be trying out for Seeker." Knight spat right back at me, giving a challengingly glare. He had an almost unsure look about him. Clearly he knew that I am Slytherin's Seeker, and judging by the way Knight is built, he wasn't actually a Seeker. Most likely just trying to spite me, the little bugger.

I eyed him critically a bit longer before bearing a wicked grin. "Excellent. Merlin knows _you're _the right build for one. We'll start with Seekers then, shall we?" Knight discreetly swallowed nervously, trying to still act confident in front of his fellow Slytherin's. My question was met by silence. "Great. Seekers on the pitch!" I roared. While everyone made their way over I landed temporarily on the ground ordering someone to go get the box of balls from the store cupboard, and putting Granger behind me after transfiguring her school robes into some green Quidditch ones. "She should be waking up soon, right?" I asked Blaise but he didn't need to reply as Granger stirred ever so slightly in sleep. She wasn't completely awake yet and, by the sounds of it, not for another couple of minutes.

"That answer your question?" Blaise asked smirking.

"It did." I said simply, taking a minute to think. Soon enough I'd reached a conclusion in my thoughts and the box containing the balls was handed to me. "Who needs to try out the Seekers?" I said grinning at Blaise. Of course I wasn't going to let any of them, no matter how good they were, take _my _position on the team. We both knew it was going to happen anyway-we just wanted to give the possible Seekers a glimmer of hope-which we'd promptly squash. Same goes for Nott, Pucey's and Zabini's positions, it was a deal we had as friends. Accuse us of being biased if you want but that won't get you on the team.

"Straight into a game? There are 15 of us." He said catching on quickly.

"Referee?" I asked him to which he gave a knowing smile. Turning away from him I looked to the 'potential' Seekers hovering on the pitch and then to the others trying out for Keepers, Chasers or Beaters before taking out my wand and casting the _'sonorus charm'. _"On second thoughts we'll do the trying out part later, for now how about a little game?" Everyone that wasn't on the ground where I was speaking came over ready to be sorted into their teams. Once they had gathered I took the charm off since they could all hear what I'm saying without it. I gazed around immediately picking my other friends, Nott and Pucey to be on my team, and sizing up the others to make sure I had the winning team and no less. "Right so, Clarke, Simmons, Steele, Pucey, Nott and Wilde, you'll be on my team. Nott, Pucey you'll be my Beaters; Clarke, Simmons and Steele you'll be Chasers and Wilde you'll be Keeper, got it?" I glanced around my team checking their nods and sending a message to Nott and Pucey with my eyes that I have a special request for them. "That leaves the rest of you as one team; Baker you're Keeper; Forte, Kenny and Nickels you're Chasers; Skinner and Thorne you're Beaters and," I turned my head to send a mocking glare at Knight, "You'll be Seeker." I stated leaving no room for any disagreements-not that there would be any anyway. Knight seemed to almost squirm under my glare and practically everyone on his team knew that he wasn't really a Seeker-a Keeper maybe-but not a Seeker. It was easy to tell that if they lost, which they most certainly would, they'd blame him.

"Hey, um, Malfoy...Is that Granger behind you?" Kenny asked quizzically straining his neck to have a proper look.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about her." I said glancing back behind me where she was once again stirring.

"Why is she _here_?" Skinner questioned further.

"Well Granger here hates flying so I thought it'd only be _kind _to help her get over her fear by joining us, albeit practically asleep because of a sleeping draft, but she'll wake up soon enough."

"This is because of the Prank War, _right_?" Thorne asked giving a slight critical look that was partially covered by his blonde hair falling in his eyes.

"Yes." I said sending him a look that questioned why he'd think otherwise. "Now I might have said-if I were in a good mood-to show her that not all Slytherin's are out to get her, but she ruined my mood this morning so now I'm saying: When Blaise gives the signal, fly as close to me as you can so I have to manoeuvre very sharply and quickly to avoid close skirmishes, hit Bludgers close to us but clearly so they miss-I _don't _want to be hit, understand? Same goes with the Quaffle. Oh and be careful because I'm going to be doing Wronski Feints left, right and centre. I want no injures before we have even had a proper tryout of everyone or even a proper game against one of the other houses. Got it? To your positions then!" I ordered and they all hurried back to the pitch but Blaise, Nott and Pucey stayed back to discuss private matters. "Aim every Bludger at Knight." I said simply to my smirking Beaters. With everything said and done I kicked off the ground to go join everyone else, gripping tightly onto Granger's arms.

The game started nicely and Granger was still asleep 5 minutes into it but she was waking up fast as she had started to move more frequently. My team, the A-team as I liked to call it, were winning 20-10, but unfortunately my Beaters hadn't landed a direct hit on Knight. They were only so close to breaking an arm, his broom, his leg, his...skull, but _every_ time he just managed to dodge them. It was grating on my nerves and to top it off he had been having more luck finding the snitch than I was-I was the _real _Seeker!

My beautiful fantasies of seriously injuring-better yet, killing him-were interrupted as I felt Granger slowly lift her head from my back. I looked over to Blaise who had caught my gaze and gave him a tight nod. If the loud, high-pitched whistle didn't completely shake Granger from her sleepy daze, being knocked out for so long might have messed up her brain.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

Lifting my head from whatever soft but firm surface it was on, I slowly blinked my eyes to try and readjust to the light and the almost unnatural amount of wind that was breezing past me. I probably accidentally left the window open when I went to bed last night. But clearly that wasn't the case as a loud whistle sounded in my ears. Unless Malfoy had recently got a whistle and was now blowing it about the dorm-I doubt I was even there. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember leaving the Great Hall. Shifting about a little bit, I could even feel that I wasn't lying in my bed. Something smooth and wooden was in between my legs; it felt like I was sitting on a-Oh God no!

"Mornin' Granger." A familiar, unreasonably happy voice sounded way to close to me for comfort. My eyes snapped open to see the back of Malfoy and the fast approaching ground. My stomach lurched and I had the extremely unpleasant feeling of terrified butterflies flapping around. Letting out a shrill scream that made Malfoy wince, I clutched his waist tighter than I already apparently was and squeezed my eyes shut, wishing that I could be anywhere else than wherever I was at this moment. Not daring to open my eyes until I felt Malfoy pull the broom up so it levelled out again, I let lose a string of bitter insults while I wasn't screaming my throat raw. A gravity defying pull made my body feel unusually stiff and I knew that we were no longer plummeting to our death. Releasing one of my hands from giving his robes a death grip, I pounded fiercely on his back which only resulted in him giving big booming guffaws.

"Malfoy what are you doing?!" I screeched at him still pounding on his back.

"If you open your eyes you'll see." He coaxed. For a git he could use his voice to be extremely persuasive when he wanted. I was almost considering just opening one eye at the least to take a look at the surroundings. He seemed to have stopped flying and was just hovering.

"Where's Zabini? He seems awfully much nicer than you." I snapped not wanting to be persuaded so easily by him.

"What? You didn't know Granger? Yesterday was the third day-it came off!" Not even looking at him I could tell that he was smirking and feeling smug about himself. "It's not that bad. C'mon just take a look around-it's a nice view." I had to admit, I _was _curious about where I was exactly. I mean, I _had _an idea of course, I just hoped Malfoy wasn't that cruel. "Hurry up Granger, I just saw the snitch and I _have _to get it before that bloody Knight." I huffed indignantly and slowly opened one eye. A Bludger was coming straight for us, letting out another ear-piercing screech, I alerted Malfoy to the problem and in one swift motion he swung the broom around so we were hanging upside-down. I gasped and looked down, or up? towards my legs thinking that I was still wearing my school skirt, but I was met with looking at an emerald pair of robes. Sending a horrified glare at Malfoy who was smiling in amusement at me, I hoped to wipe the grin off his face but he seemed completely unfazed and his smile was contagious in a way and I felt myself have a small smile on my face as well. It also helped that he looked utterly ridiculous with his hair not splayed on his head like it usually is, but instead looking like it wanted to fall to the ground. Before the blood completely rushed to our head and we passed out, Malfoy flipped the broom so we were once again sitting on it normally. Finally getting a good view of where we actually were, my worst suspicions were confirmed. I was on the Quidditch pitch for Slytherin's practice.

"You brought me to practice!"

"Tryouts." He corrected amused. "I brought you to tryouts. Don't look at me like that; I thought you'd like Quidditch. You dated Viktor Krum who is one of the world's best Seekers, your friend's Potter, Weasley and his sister are big fans of the sport too-and his twin brothers were Beaters and apparently most of his brother's were on the team as a matter of fact. Besides, you're a witch; nearly every wizard has played Quidditch before. And on top of that, Merlin knows how much you like _me _and I'm captain as well as Seeker for the Slytherin's." He said all too innocently. I could just tell he knew I didn't like flying. He was going to pay so, so much.

"How'd you get me here anyway? And how'd you get me into these Slytherin Quidditch robes?!" I snapped eyeing him warily.

"Remember going back to the Dorm last night? No? Exactly. We drugged you with a Sleeping potion and carried you back to the dorm where you stayed asleep till a couple of minutes ago. And don't worry Granger, I just merely transfigured them-and before you change them back I'm just saying that flying round on a broom in a skirt might not be very clever on your part." He replied casually.

"You git! When did you exactly find the time to make a sleeping potion anyway?!"

"When you sent me and Blaise to patrol the corridors on our own the other night-there's your truthful answer by the way. We went in Snape's room and spent our time brewing it."

"Why are you Slytherin's so annoying?!" I muttered frustrated with myself for unconsciously giving them that window of opportunity.

"Not all of us fortunately for you Granger. I'm the best though; I'm the best Head boy, the best Prince, the best captain, the best Seeker-" He drawled.

"Not likely for long. _He _seems to be a good Seeker; unlike you he's actually found the snitch and is going after it. Maybe he'll stand a better chance getting it before Harry than _you_." I cut in quickly wanting to bring his ego down a notch.

"There is no bloody way that Knight is taking my place! He's not even a proper Seeker-look at him! He's got a Keeper's build!"

"Well then, are you just going to stay here and let him get it or are you going to do something about it? Hey! Hey! Put me down first! Maaalllffoooyy!" He laid practically flat against the broom trying to make himself as aerodynamic as possible, and made a beeline towards Knight. Against my will I had to lie low down on the broom as well so that I could cling to Malfoy better.

"You just wait Granger! I'll make you eat your words! _I'm _the better Seeker!" He called behind him loudly over the rushing wind. I could only just imagine the determined game-face that he must have been wearing. He spiralled past Chasers, swerved past the Quaffle and Bludgers-only just missing them-and barked some orders along the line of 'Aim better!' to his Beaters. We reached Knight in high-time, almost knocking him off his broom which made him, to Malfoy's advantage, swerved away from the line of the snitch giving him a better position.

"Malfoy slow down! I'm going to vomit!" I shouted back at him.

"Good! Make sure it doesn't go on me though-aim for Knight!" He called lightly back, reaching out his arm to grab the snitch. Knight came back though, with a cruel sneer, and repeatedly rammed into Malfoy's broom, and made my grip on him loosen even more after each one. We were approaching the ground quickly again and Knight's cruel face seemed to have a smidge of concern etched onto it; with one last shove he sent us spinning off to the side and pulled upwards to wait for the snitch to pull out of its steep dive. With a deep growl he decided to leave the chase for a moment and zoomed off towards Pucey who was one of his Beaters. "Give me that." He hissed and snatched the bat out of his hands, then positioned himself to get the next Bludger.

"Long time no see, eh Granger?" Pucey said smirking and raising and eyebrow. I shot him a disgusted look and turned back to watch as much of the game, all the while watching for incoming Bludgers, as I could before Malfoy decided to go back after the snitch. Seeing as much as I could of Malfoy's face, I could see a shadow of a wicked grin because of the approaching Bludger, and his body tensed a bit waiting for the impact.

"Granger, I want you to duck as low as you can and stay that way until I tell you otherwise, alright?" He said calmly as he prepared to raise the bat.

"If you put me down on the ground then I won't need to duck." I stated defiantly. Deep inside I knew that when the time came I would most surely duck without a second thought, but for now I liked to entertain the idea that Malfoy might actually listen to me.

"Do what you want Granger but the only thing that's going to be on the ground _will _be your head which I _will _knock off if you do not duck." Malfoy said back with a tense shrug of his shoulders.

"You're such a git!"

"That I may be Granger, but I _am_ giving you advice and a warning. _You're_the one who doesn't want to listen. Besides, I'm only trying to prove that-DUCK!" He suddenly exclaimed which I happily obliged to doing as he was about to swing the wooden bat right into my face. Quite a loud clunk sounded and Malfoy let out a breath.

"Good shot." Pucey sounded mildly impressed at the Seekers skills of being a Beater.

"Bloody better than any of yours. I _said_to hit him. Honestly, if you want something done you've to do it yourself." He sounded quite smug with himself but irritated at his teammate's ability to follow his orders nonetheless.

"I _can_come up now, can't I?" I asked, lessening my grip on Malfoy a little bit.

"Yeah, yeah, of course." He said distractedly as he seemed to float around the pitch, avoiding another few close skirmishes with a couple of Chasers. Looking around again I noticed that Blaise seemed to be referring the match, one of the Keepers had blocked two attempts of a goal and another one of the Beaters had managed to land a hit on a Chaser. One thing stood out for sure which was probably the cause of Malfoy's now relaxed posture-Knight was no longer on the pitch.

"You said you'd prove that you are the better Seeker." I stated unhappily and he breezed around the pitch for the second time.

"Huh? I am." He replied.

"You just eliminated the competition-clearly you're not."

"I didn't 'eliminate' him. I merely broke the front of his broom and probably crushed one of his hands and broke the other-he'll be fine."

"You can't do that!" I huffed irritably. I was quite enjoying the thought that that Knight person could easily strip Malfoy of his position and as the cherry on the cake-it wasn't even his _real _position on the field.

"Of course I can Granger. Tell me, who's the ref?"

"Blaise." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"And give me a reason _why _he would penalize _me _for it? Given that I am the one that holds the ability to both let me keep his place on the team and also strip him of it. _And _of course he's my friend. So, why should he?" He replied arrogantly.

"Zabini isn't going to be reffing the _real _matches, so you won't be able to get away with it then." I snapped back.

"Of course I won't, I'm not a Beater." He snorted.

"Well-Well your Beaters won't get away with such orders."

"They will if Madam Hooch isn't watching."

"That's _cheating!" _

"And?" Malfoy asked clearly not understanding that it was wrong. "Look Granger, this is Quidditch. It's not exactly a safe game that guarantees no injuries whatsoever-we don't spend ages worrying about if someone's hurt. Suck it up. We have Beaters to knock other players out the game, not because we need the pitch to be filled with more people."

"Well you should let them do _their_job then."

"They _weren't _landing a hit. What was I meant to do? Just _leave _it?" I opened my mouth to protest that that was _exactly _what he was supposed to do before he cut me off, "What robes are you wearing Granger?"

"Slytherin." I spat in disgust as I ducked out of the way of a fast flying Chaser.

"Exactly. _'Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.'_Sound familiar to you?" I huffed in response and didn't say anything for a couple of minutes.

"So, when's this little game over anyway?" I questioned before the broom suddenly lurched forward and I clung to Malfoy for dear life once again.

"Lighten up woman! You are going to bruise me-I'm not even going that fast!" He sounded like he was having so much fun potentially frightening the life out of me. Too much fun. It was true though, he was going less than half the speed he was going around 20 minutes ago.

"Look just hurry up and get the bloody snitch so I can put my feet back where they belong!"

"Not a fan of flying, are you?" He stated happily as he pulled up on the broom and brought us into a loop-the-loop. I clung tighter and squeezed my eyes shut again.

"Not in the slightest." I gritted out. "I'm a person-not a bird-my feet belong on the ground."

"No, you're not a bird-but you _are _a witch and us magic folk _fly_."

"Not everyone fl-" I started but Malfoy cut me off before I could finish.

"You know," Malfoy continued as if I hadn't just been saying something, "_I _think it's because you haven't been able to experience it properly."

"Well it's not like I'd have such a good experience if I have to be constantly aware of Bludgers and Chasers everywhere I look." I said haughtily. All of a sudden Malfoy swung himself around so he was hanging by his arms on the underside of the broom.

"Hey, you won't let me plummet to my death, right? You'll catch me, or-or slow me down or something, won't you?" Malfoy asked wincing as he tried to grip the broom better.

"Don't count on it, I'm angry at you for making me suffer through this-and what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" I said outraged.

"Great. Great." I heard him mutter to himself under his breath. He started to climb towards the end of the broom, where I was sitting, like he was on muggle monkey bars. I swung my leg out the way, clipping him at the back of his head as he continued to move forward, still curious as to what he was doing. "Unless you want to slip off backwards," He said between breaths, "Move towards the front."

"No way am I going to fly this thing! Get back to the front where you belong or I won't hesitate to pry your fingers off one by one!" I hissed.

"Not going to happen Granger. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to get you to fly one way or another _today. Now _I'm going to swing up behind you, you can either move forward of your own free will and remain unscathed _or_you can stay put and we can both fall to the ground." He started to swing from side to side so that he had enough momentum to get back up on the broom and I felt myself being pulled dangerously close to the edge. As well as being jolted so hard that I was almost falling off, I'd been sliding back so far that I felt the twiggy side of the broom poke and scratch my legs. Unfortunately this was causing me to pull myself forward, if only just a little bit. A couple my swings later and I both heard and felt him land behind me-groaning because the twigs must have seriously scratched, poked and prodded his delicate parts, and felt him because the broom leaned so far back it was close to being horizontal. "Where's your stupid courage! Move-Forward!" He said irritated. Clearly there was a stick poking up his arse. When I didn't budge he got his hands and started to push me forwards. I tried to resist but that was futile compared to his strength, soon enough I found myself with my eyes once again squeezed tight, hands gripping the handle tightly and leaning so far back that I was pushing against Malfoy. I didn't mind as much, I could feel the toned muscles that I saw only the other day, and I'd convinced myself that if he was there he'd surely not let me die.

Well, I liked to think it'd happen.

* * *

Draco's P.O.V

"Stop acting like a Hufflepuff, swallow some of that stupid Gryffindor courage of yours, stop shaking and for Merlin's sake woman-open your eyes and have some sense of personal space!" I commanded her. Of course, the infuriating feelings that had made another unfortunate appearance, said otherwise to how much I liked the closeness. Slowly but surely, she shook less and less, finally gaining back the spirit that made her be sorted into Gryffindor; as the courage manifested inside her she moved forward slightly, loosened her death grip on the handle and gradually opened her eyes. "Now that you've finally seemed to pull yourself together, hold the broom properly." I instructed, looking around at what was happening on the pitch. Blaise looked over to me and gave a questioning look. He seemed to have been watching what was happening between us. I sent him a look to tell him what was going on later which he didn't seem to question and turned back to the game to spot fouls. I also had a feeling that he was keeping everyone away from our little area on the pitch so we could sort ourselves out without interference. Turning back to look at Granger's hands to see if she had placed them properly now, I saw that she hadn't and told her to do so again.

"I don't know how to hold it properly, OK? I don't exactly ride brooms often." She huffed annoyed. A little part of me leapt at the thought of knowing that I had to guide her on the broom, but the more reasonable, the more sane side of me squashed the idea while it leapt at the thought of being able to do something that Granger wasn't.

"Honestly, you leave me no choice Granger. We are going to fly and we will get that snitch." I said leaning forward to grab her hands in mine. She flinched; I could feel it given that we were back in our close proximity. "You trust me don't you? I'm only helping." I said softly close to her ear hoping it made her relax. Unfortunately she flinched again and even went rigid, gripping the broom just that bit tighter. Maybe talking to her softly like that, was the wrong way to go about it. I backed off, giving her, her needed space while still staying close so that I could see what I was doing. "It's OK, look, I've given you space, now you have to let me help you. Deal?" I asked as loudly as I was speaking previously. She seemed to relax more, giving a curt nod and whispering 'Deal'. I said my thanks and took her hands again, moving them to the correct place on the broom. Leaning forward and pushing her hands down so the broom went towards the ground, I showed her how to moved, going through all the different motions which she soon got annoyed at claiming that she knew how to fly.

"Geez Malfoy, I may not like flying but I know how to go left, right, up and down!"

"Fine then, do what you want. I won't bother you anymore." I sighed, resigning to the very end of the broom to relax.

"Maybe you should go check on Knight, see if he's OK after you hit him." Granger suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.

"What and leave you here alone? Where you could _also _get hit with a Bludger, fall off the broom or something and it would be entirely my fault? Yeah, don't think so Granger. Anyway, why would _I _care what happened to him and _why _do you?" I stated trying to leave concern out of my voice.

"I'm perfectly capable of staying on a broom. Besides, I don't care that much, he's a Slytherin and I don't even know him. I'm just concerned because he's a human being and he's hurt-why don't you care about him, though? Aren't Slytherin's one giant team?" She sounded almost generally interested. _Almost_.

"You make it sound as if we're those stupid butterflies! We most definitely are _not_!" I protested.

"Butterflies?! Malfoy, they're badgers. I know you aren't _badgers_-you're much, much worse." She said sounding mildly amused.

"Yes I know what they are, but butterflies suit them so much better."

"Because they're pretty? Has Malfoy got a crush in Hufflepuff?!" She squealed sounding quite excited.

"_No_! Because butterflies are harmless-like they are!"

"Badgers are reasonably harmless."

"Not all of them."

"Whatever."

"Just fly." I muttered growing tired of the conversation and just wanting to rest for a while.

* * *

"Well...this is kind of easy...Nothing's gone wrong yet!" She said as she flew around the pitch for what must have been at least the fourth time.

"Yes, but relax, you're still too stiff." I coaxed her once again, cautiously placing my hands on her shoulders and trying to push them back so she relaxed. It was like she was adamant to not lighten up.

"That's because I still don't like flying. Now get back to the front, I've had enough." She said slipping her hands out from under mine and shuffling further backwards so she was almost against me again.

"But you're so-" I started but when I caught the look she threw over her shoulder at me, I knew trying to convince her to let me relax for a bit longer wasn't going to work. "OK, OK fine. When I hang on the broom again shuffle backwards slowly so it balances out." I told her swinging one of my legs over the side of the broom and started to climb to the front.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

I looked around the pitch for what must've been the thousandth time. Malfoy was still gracefully flying around the pitch acting as if he had all the time in the world to get the snitch and end the game-at times even stopping to observe what was happening. Well, he did sort of have all the time-there wasn't another Seeker to get it before him and it was a Saturday-the tryouts could go on all day if he wanted. Right now Malfoy decided that he had enough time to have a lovely conversation with Nott since Pucey had been hit with a Bludger from the other team. I was just sitting there, still in my grump, when I heard a tiny flitting noise from somewhere near me. Looking around-I saw that most conveniently-the snitch was just hovering above us. _'Just in arms reach if I stood on the broom.'_ I thought to myself as I watched it hover._ 'No doubt Malfoy wouldn't need to stand but merely stretch his arm as high as he can above his head-that's if he'd notice it though.' _Flickering my gaze away from the mesmerising small, golden flying ball, to Malfoy, I could see that he was way too busy laughing and casually conversing with Nott. _'Well, let's see who the better seeker is now then, eh Malfoy? I'll show you my stupid courage!'_ Lightly placing my hands on Malfoy's shoulders to balance myself without drawing too much attention to what I was doing, I drew one of my legs up to place my foot close to Malfoy's back but not close enough to feel it (Lucky I had small feet.). For a second I wondered whether Nott would notice me considering he was facing my direction, but with his head thrown back howling with laughter and how much attention he was paying to what his captain was saying-as only one of his followers would do-it'd be hard to expect him to notice a cow flying towards him. Wobbling slightly, but not enough to rock the broom, I brought my other foot up and carefully behind my other one. Standing up from my half crouched position, I stood to almost my full height-still keeping my knees slightly bent-and even more slowly, reached for the snitch. Looking back down at them they were recovering from another bout of laughter and had resumed watching the game. I had almost closed my fingers around it when it zoomed a little bit further to the side making it just out of my reach. _'Maybe if I just streetchhed...'_  
"BLUDGER!" Malfoy exclaimed suddenly and violently jerked to the right. My footing slipped and I fell forward-managing to grab the snitch quite like Harry had in Second year-but potentially falling to my death which I had been trying to avoid doing since I woke up. Letting out a shocked scream as I cut through the air, I managed to gain the attention of Malfoy who recognised the shriek as mine, making him look around wildly, saying an uncertain 'Granger?' before spotting me. His eyes widened to such a size it would've been funny in any other given situation, and before he came to help me he said something to Nott, then turned on his broom, putting himself in his aerodynamic position and flew after me. A couple of Chasers flew past me but didn't bother to help me-not that I expected they would want to help or touch a mudblood, even if the war is over-which made quite an obstacle for Malfoy to get past but he did it nonetheless. Soon he caught up nicely to me, all he had to do was stretch out an arm and grab me but he seemed to have more important things on his mind-like scolding me on my stupidity.

"Granger what on Earth were you doing?!"  
"How could you have fallen off?! All you were doing was sitting down! You told me you could stay on a broom!"  
"What did you do?! Jump?!"  
"Honestly, I thought you were clever?! Brightest Witch my ass!"  
"You make Goyle look intelligent! At least he can stay on a broom!"

He'd sound mildly concerned if he didn't inform me that he thought that he might just let me break every bone in my body as karma. "Of course if you die because you fell from a great height at Slytherin tryouts, people would question what you, a Gryffindor, were doing in the first place and then it'd be my fault. And I can't have people thinking that," not wanting to look at Malfoy's beyond angry face as he just let me fall, I turned my head to look behind me towards the fast rising ground which was now only a few metres from me. With only a couple of seconds left, I once again squeezed my eyes shut so tight that a tear escaped, and braced myself for the impact. The regret of catching the snitch at the cost of dying I thought was going to be my last ever feeling. That was until a hand caught my arm in an iron-tight grip, most certainly bruising my arm-but that thought was a million miles away from my mind-and lowered me a couple of centimetres till my feet touched the firm ground once more. The hand that was still clamped around my arm gave me a little jostle and my eyes snapped open to see Malfoy standing opposite me, his broom discarded on the ground beside him, a cheeky grin on his face that didn't entirely reach his eyes. "Can I?" He finished. Without a second thought I started to pound my fists on his chest as hard as I could in my hysterical state. It was hard enough I figured when he stumbled backwards a bit.

"Draco Malfoy I hate you so bloody much! You're the biggest jerk and the most insufferable git on the planet! Merlin I hate you so much! You-You slimy ferret!" I gasped in between sobs all the while punching him in my bleary haze.

"Hey, come on, I'm not that bad, am I? He asked sounding genuinely interested.

"No, you're not." I cried as more sobs racked through my body and I launched myself onto him, embracing him in a bone crushing hug. From his stiff posture he either didn't get hugs often, was completely bewildered by my sudden outburst or was shocked by it or more to the point-he was shocked that I was hugging him. After a couple minutes of him just standing there probably trying to recover, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around me. More minutes later, he started to murmur apologises that it was his fault that he left me falling for long probably giving the impression that he wasn't going to help, that I might've been less terrified if he had just caught me earlier, that it was his fault as he wouldn't put her back on the ground but forced her to stay on the broom, that it was his fault because he kidnapped me in the first place and brought her to practice. He also murmured soothing words and I was sure that I even felt a couple of his tears fall on me-not that he'd ever admit it. Crying was a weakness.

I was still remotely aware that the game was still going on above us but I wasn't paying much attention to them, instead trying to calm myself down into a less hysterical state. Thank goodness that it actually worked or I might've just cried for hours and hours. "I'm so sorry." He whispered into my hair for what must've been for the fifth time. "It was meant to be a prank. I-I didn't think you'd almost die! It's all my fault."

Pulling back to look into his upset-but more than anything angered face- I tried to reassure him, "No-No, if I wasn't here could I ever have got this?" I brought my hands down from around his neck and opened my right fist to show him the snitch, which gave a few final flaps of its wings before shutting them away in its golden body. His mouth would've been unhinged if it wasn't 'improper behaviour' but he slowly blinked his amazement away.

"You-you caught the snitch?" He was absolutely flabbergasted. "You caught the snitch! You caught the snitch, aha!" Suddenly his excited expression turned serious. "Even in Quidditch you still beat me. Well, I guess the match is finished then." He turned around and shouted at Zabini that the game is over, the snitch being caught, and that 150 points should be added to his team's total. All the players gathered (with the exception of Knight) around him to wait for more orders, assuming that tryouts were really going to happen now.

"Well, who won then?" A tall boy with short black hair asked Malfoy.

"Our team of course Clarke, we beat them by 50 points after the snitch was caught." he replied arrogantly.

"You didn't catch the snitch though. I mean, you would've said if you did, wouldn't you? Therefore we beat you by 50 points." A muscular boy with long brown hair stated.

"Granger caught it and Granger is on my team. We beat you Baker-deal with it." Malfoy shot back glaring.

"Since when was the Gryffindor mudblood Princess on your team Malfoy?" Baker snapped back.

"Since I'm the captain and I say so," Malfoy growled, "And if you want to even have your position considered I'd shut up now."

"You can't deny me a chance on the team."

"I'm Head Boy, your captain, Slytherin's Prince and the Godson of Snape. I can do whatever the bloody hell I want." He spat positively seething. "Seekers. On. The. Pitch." He forced out, a menacing grin taking over his mouth. The potential Seekers all but ran onto the pitch not wanting to suffer Malfoy's wrath; turning towards me he looked a smidge calmer but still livid and grated out the words, "Granger give me the bloody snitch." He turned back around and stalked towards the pitch, and then after he not-so-discreetly looked back over his shoulder giving me a calculating look, he stormed towards Zabini and grabbed him by the collar of his robes, pulling him close to his face. He seemed to say, or more likely hiss, something to him and then released Zabini who walked over to me and grabbed me by my upper arm, dragging me away.

"I can walk fine thanks by myself." I hissed at him, ripping my arm from his grip. He just rolled his eyes and continued to walk me somewhere. "What are you doing anyway? What did Malfoy put you up to?"

"I must escort the Princess back to her stupid friends then I can leave, or if we don't see them, I get to keep her company in the Head's Dorm." He drawled walking somewhat briskly in front of me.

"But you need to get back to tryouts for-for-for whatever position you play." I protested wanting nothing more than to just walk around the castle, do whatever I want-even go back to the Quidditch pitch if I wanted.

"He's not going to give away my position and you know that. I'm not going anywhere Granger unless we find your friends. Oh and, good job at catching that snitch, that's how you fell I presume? Sorry for not helping, I was a bit preoccupied-Nott decided to attack Thorne with his bat for hitting that Bludger towards you-I had to split it up of course, Draco didn't want any injuries before he even chose the team."

"What about Knight though? From what Malfoy said, he sounds like he's going to be with Madam Pomfrey for weeks."

"Knight is a threat and Draco feels that he's too much trouble than he's worth. His instincts are always on the ball, so we trust whatever he says. He didn't become Prince just because he's a Malfoy, you know."

* * *

**A/N-I would like to credit the story "The Prank War" by CrazyGirl47 which inspired my story**


	8. Planning Revenge

**A/N- So most of this is going to be in Hermione's P.O.V seeing as Draco doesn't really have a place in this chapter. Little bit of a mystery this chapter, I hope. I'd love to hear what you think is going to happen.**

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

"So _why _exactly did Malfoy send _you _to 'keep me company' while _he _gets to fly around on his broom?" I asked irritated that due to Malfoy's 'orders' to Zabini, I haven't been able to leave the Head's Dorm since we got back after not finding Ron or Harry a good half an hour ago.

"Look, he just did OK? He didn't give me a reason and I don't need one if I want to keep my place on the team. Stop complaining-it's not all roses for me either; I could be doing something else right now." He retorted, obviously as irritated with the ferret as I was.

"He's threatening you with your place on the team?! That's horrible!" I exclaimed at Malfoy's cunning behaviour. "I barely need looking after anyway and I don't know what's making him think any different."

"Not as horrible as this." He muttered under his breath, but I still heard him and sent a glare in his direction. It wasn't _my _fault that Malfoy gave him an absurd 'babysitting' job that was definitely not needed. "Anyway, maybe this," He said gesturing to the both of us, "thing is probably because of that little stunt you pulled back at the pitch. You sort of gave a big scare."

"Whatever, it's not like we're even friends so I don't know why he even cares-and _even _if he did, he should be here-not you. Besides it's not even my fault, I didn't just decided to go to your blasted Quidditch tryouts-_you _two drugged me! Whose pathetic idea was it anyway, his?"

"It was mine as a matter of fact, _I _thought of it on the first day." He stated.

"Oh...well, I'm going to go find Harry and Ron, or try to, again." I said a little embarrassed at thinking that it _had _to have been Malfoy's idea and quickly changing the subject so that I could hopefully find them and get away from him.

"I'll be coming with you then."

"Please don't feel you don't have to..." I almost begged trying to nicely tell him I don't want him to come with me.

"If you want me to go, just say." Zabini said shrugging, "There's no point constantly beating around the bush, just be completely blunt. I'm a Slytherin, I can take it."

"Oh well, in that case-Get lost Zabini!" I said rather forcefully.

"No." He firmly stated.

"But you said-" I helplessly protested before he cut me off.

"I said that I could take whatever you want to say, I never said that I'd actually do it." He smirked at me as I made an undignified noise to show my frustration with Slytherin's and stomped out of the portrait entrance and towards to first stop at the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

After I told The Fat Lady the password, which Ron had told me the other day, and I checked the entire common room, I discovered that they were not there. Leaving there I checked the Black Lake-nothing, then I checked the Great Hall in the odd chance that they were there-nothing, I ruled out trying the Quidditch pitch as Malfoy was most probably still there with his tryouts so there was no reason for two Gryffindor's to be there, I checked the kitchens, the entire grounds, the Gryffindor common room again and I even asked a couple of people but still no one knew where they could possibly be.

"Can we go back _now_? We've been searching for about 3 hours." Zabini whined as we walked back towards the library in the extremely unlikely chance that they were actually studying.

"_No!_I have to find them and stop being followed by you." I snapped back. Any longer in his presence with him commenting on everything and complaining about everything especially when I don't need it and I would go mad.

"Well search all day and night then, but you're never going to find them. You've basically checked everywhere." He stated as he fell in step behind me.

"This is all yours and Malfoy's fault." I grumbled. "Merlin I hate him so much."

"Don't think you're the only one." Zabini commented.

"Yeah... about the whole school hates him. I wouldn't be surprised if Slytherins aren't as in love with their 'Prince' as much as they make out to be." I mused to mostly myself.

"Some of us snakes would probably like to pull one over him." He said nonchalantly.

"Well why don't you?" I asked curious.

"We're too traceable, sure our plans would turn out perfect but it's easy to tell that such a brilliant, cunning prank is a Slytherin's. On top of that, we're entirely too suspicious of each other."

"Interesting...Have you ever thought about teaming up, perhaps with another house? I'm sure Dumbledore will be happy to see some House Unity." I said, now slowly concocting a little revenge plan for Malfoy in my head. Of course, if I _ever _was going to put it to use, I'd need help from the other 3 houses and I'd need to find Harry and Ron; and it's not like I blame him for my fall, it was partly my fault but it was _mostly _his since it was his prank that brought me there.

"Because House Unity is something we're good at." He said sarcastically. We walked in silence for a bit longer while I let my plans brew in my mind, making sure that it is solid and fool-proof before I ever tell anyone about what I'm thinking. When we entered the library and walked around the shelves, I started up another conversation to help with my revenge.

"Do you have any of that sleeping potion left over from yesterday?" I asked curiously, not entirely meeting his gaze.

"Maybe about half left. Why?" He questioned, walking up and then falling in step besides me, trying to look me in the eye.

"Would _you _like to get Malfoy back for this little _ordeal_he put you through?"

"What has the Princess got in mind?" He asked curiously, raising one eyebrow and finally being able to meet my eyes.

"Eugh, don't call me that."

"Call you what? _Princess_?" He teased, smirking. "Why?"

"Because, Malfoy's the Slytherin Prince and princes and princesses usually-you know what, I'm not even going to finish that sentence." I said laughing it off, almost a bit nervously.

"Come on though, every Princess needs a Prince." He said sounding mildly amused, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Don't push it Zab-_Blaise_." I half-growled before correcting myself and then turning it into a fake happy expression.

"Blaise?"

"You haven't forgotten your name, have you? If you're joining in with this little idea I've got, then we should have a truce. At least temporarily." I added in. He gave me a long look, seeming to consider it for a while. I could only hope he did except. I mean, once we get one Slytherin to help, how much harder can it be to get the rest of them on board?

"A truce it is then, but what exactly is your plan?" He replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll tell you soon enough, just trust me for now. I need you to go to the Slytherin common room? And get the rest of the sleeping potion, it doesn't matter how much there is just bring it-I'll meet you at the portrait of The Fat Lady, I assume you know where that is since we've been there twice already, OK?" Once again he put on a thoughtful face, considering the idea. I could almost see himself asking the rhetorical questions inside his head; _'Should I trust her and just meet her at the portrait? Or is she just tricking me to escape? What if Draco finds her without me there?' _He gave me a calculating look, similar to the one Malfoy gave me back on the pitch and gave a curt nod of his head, then left the library.

Finally I was free. But I still had to go find Harry and Ron.

Turning on my heel, I walked briskly back to the Gryffindor common room, for the third time told the portrait the password and searched the room. Thankfully, they were there.

"'Mione! We've been looking for you all morning!" Ron breathed as he enveloped me in a big hug.

"I've been looking for you both too. Where have you been? I looked practically everywhere." I said looking at Harry who was just awkwardly standing off to the side watching us.

"Well, we didn't see you at all this morning and Ron had a vague idea that Malfoy might've done something after yesterday in the Great Hall; so we went to Dumbledore to try and get the password for the Head's Dorm but he really didn't want to give it to us, saying that you and Malfoy needed to get along-something like that-with each other without influences."

"It took a lot of persuading to get it off the old man." Ron commented.

"Ronald!" I reprimanded him and whacked him gently on the arm.

"So we checked your room and found nothing-" Harry continued.

"Then Harry started getting panicky and a bit paranoid, and decided that he wanted to check the Forbidden Forest in case Malfoy dropped your body there." Ron said sniggering and the way Harry looked slightly embarrassed, made me grin at him as well. "When we got there though, Hagrid said that there hadn't been anyone going in the Forest-it was probably because Malfoy's anger on the Quidditch Pitch was driving everyone away-must have only just realised how rubbish Slytherin's are at Quidditch."

"Malfoy's anger?" I said wondering about how much longer after I left his anger was still going on.

"Yeah, he was practically fuming-I think I even saw him give one of his players a good whacking with a Beaters Bat." He smirked at the memory.

"Really? Was that before, or after he threw at least two of them off their brooms and barked at them to 'do something about it?'" Harry commented actually curious about Malfoy's angry antics.

"Umm...I think that was before." Ron said after a bit of thought. "Anyway 'Mione, where were you this morning?"

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to actually tell the truth about where I was to Ron and Harry. They were my best friends sure, but they had a tendency to seriously over react. Telling them that I was drugged, kidnapped and made to endure Quidditch practice on the back of Malfoy's broom before I accidentally fell off and almost plummeted to my death before Malfoy miraculously caught me, didn't sound like the mediocre response that they were probably looking for. Saying a harmless lie about where I was was starting to look better and better the more I thought about their possible outbursts to the information. "Oh, I was in the Dorm but then I left and went to the library. You really should've thought about checking there first instead of getting paranoid about Malfoy. He didn't do anything yesterday anyway; McGonagall did actually want to see us about duties." I lied and looking at their faces they both seemed to be convinced-Ron more so than Harry.

"Oh...Yeah, I guess looking back at it we should've actually looked in the library-you're always in there." Harry commented, giving me a small questioning gaze but thankfully not looking as if he wanted to pursue the matter.

"Well, back to important matters at hand, I've got an idea to prank Malfoy with." I gushed excitedly and suddenly their faces lit up.

"You thought of something Hermione? You actually thought of something?!" Harry said amused.

"Always the tone of surprise." I said smirking. "It's quite big, because why do something on a small scale, right? And besides that, you sort of have to put up with Slytherin's-if you agree to joining in that is." I added at the disgruntled looks on their faces. They both looked quite conflicted on whether to pounce on the opportunity or pass it by. After a while Harry shot me another calculating look and after a couple more seconds, nodded his head in assent. Ron sighed and his shoulders slumped, but he nodded along-never mind how reluctantly-as well.

"So what's this big idea then 'Mione?" Ron asked.

"I'll tell you but we just have to wait for-" I started but stopped when I heard Blaise shout from outside the common room. They looked a bit confused but I just said for them to trust me and let Blaise in, warning him to be civil for this to work. "Now that Blaise is here, I can begin to tell you what I've thought up."

"Wait, wait, wait-_Blaise_?" Ron questioned irritably, a small ounce of jealousy making its way through.

"Oh, well, I thought about having a temporary truce while we work on this." I said quickly squishing any amount of jealousy that he had towards Blaise. "Anyway, what I thought is, well, Blaise mentioned that some Slytherin's would like to prank Malfoy but they're too distinguishable, so I thought that we could team up to prank Malfoy together! But not just us and the snakes of course, that's good but not big enough-we should involve Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's too!"

"That's utterly brilliant 'Mione, if we pull it off it'll be amazing!" Harry praised.

"If it's going to involve all of us, shouldn't we get a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw representative or something so they know what we're doing? Or, you know, even ask them if they want to join?" Ron asked.

"Of course they'll want to join! They hate Malfoy as much as us-they've been bullied by him too-and they'll immediately join by the prospect of safety in numbers." I stated.

"Yeah, yeah, utterly brilliant and all, but what exactly does this prank entail and why do we need this sleeping potion?" Blaise drawled.

"Well, looking past blood prejudices, what's the one thing that all Slytherins seem to hate?"

"Harry!" Ron eagerly replied, confident that he got it right.

"No. A bigger amount of people." I hinted.

"All of us?" He tried again, a little less confident.

"No. _Bigger_."

"Gryffindor?" He looked unsure at his suggestion, but I gave a reassuring smile seeing as it was much closer to the answer I was wanting than the last ones.

"No, but closer."

"Ravenclaw?" He even looked confused by his own answer.

"Why would we hate Ravenclaw?" Blaise questioned.

"Because most people in your house are so thick that they can't tell the difference between a House-Elf and a Hippogriff." Ron stated.

"We'll at least we don't go on about nonsensical things like Nargles or Wrackspurts-whatever they are-like Looney Lovegood."

"_Anyway,_ what I was hoping you'd say was Hufflepuff and we'd have moved on a lot quicker. So, all Slytherins hate Hufflepuff because it's not a _'real' _house-" I started before we got sidetracked but I was interrupted.

"That's because it's not-" Blaise stated before I cut him off this time.

"Or something stupid like that and since hearing his horrible comebacks using the house, I'm guessing he hates them just as much-maybe even more."

"So you're proposing that we do something to him that involves everyone, but where Hufflepuff plays an important role?" Harry asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Now, you're definitely in, right?" I looked at their nods that were somewhat eager and reluctant at the same time. "Good. I think we should go get some Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff representatives now, tell them about what I've said so far and if they agree-which they most likely will-we'll go through the rest of the plan together."

"Some people in mind, 'Mione?" Harry asked giving a small knowing smile.

Yes actually, Luna Lovegood and Ernie Macmillan. Let's go then shall we?"

We all got up and walked out the common room going to Hufflepuff's common room first so we could get some food from the kitchens, then we'd go to the Ravenclaw's where apparently Blaise knew both the answer to the riddle and the location of it. I have no idea how though. Luckily the search for Ernie and Luna was a whole lot quicker and easier than my search for Harry and Ron and vice versa. The 6 of us went to go sit out in the courtyard, Blaise was receiving some weird looks from his fellow Slytherin's and when he did, he'd walk off to them and say something in hushed tones which they'd respond with cunning looks. The only thing I could think he was telling them was the prospect that they'd have a chance at getting their Prince. I told Luna and Ernie the outline of my plan that I had already said to Harry, Ron and Blaise, along with the temporary truce I had struck up with him and suggested that they do them same. They both agreed happily, mentioning that their according houses would be happy to go along with it, and once that was settled I spilled out the rest of the plan to everybody.

It was safe to say that by the end of it, they were extremely interested and couldn't wait to get started. Of course though, doing the prank on the weekend was just too easy, too simple and not as embarrassing as doing it on Monday, which was what we were going to do. Malfoy was due to be pranked on Monday, starting on Sunday night at the feast-just like he did to me.

* * *

It was later in the evening, just before dinner, and Hermione, Ron and Harry were walking to their common room to stay there until they went down to the Great Hall. Blaise had to leave them because he saw one of the Slytherin's that was at Quidditch practice and decided it'd be best if he left to go find Malfoy otherwise it might have created some suspicion; Ernie and Luna both left as well, albeit a while after Blaise, to go talk to their other friends and catch up on some work.

This left the Golden Trio to themselves again, but it didn't matter as they were discussing the finer details of the plot between themselves. Unfortunately there was less of the sleeping draft than Blaise had thought there'd been. There was barely enough to knock him out for 2 hours. That was one of the problems that they had to solve; another being what to do about the Professors on Monday if all should go according to plan. After a while of talking though, Harry came up with the brilliant idea to go see Dumbledore about it.  
"Well he's the one that started this, isn't he? He wanted it to be_ 'bigger and better than the last years'_. Right? Well, I'd like to see someone do something bigger than this, so I expect we'd have him to help sort all this out. It's worth a shot." Harry explained. Not really having any better ideas for once in her life, Hermione agreed to go to Dumbledore with Ron in tow but not before they owled Ernie, Luna and Blaise to tell them where they were going and that it'd be a good idea to have them join the meeting.

Only minutes later Ernie and Luna showed up together outside Dumbledore's office with the Golden Trio, having received the message. They waited an additional 5 minutes for Blaise to see if he'd make his entrance, but after he didn't show, they went ahead and said the password-'Chocolate Frogs'-and were about to start climbing the staircase to his office before Blaise came skidding round the corner. He panted, rather out of breath, saying that he was there and stumbled towards the stairs, taking the lead from Harry. Upon reaching the door, the sextet barely needed to knock once before Dumbledore swiftly called for them to come in, in such a way they were left wondering whether he was expecting them to drop by.  
"Good evening, Mr Potter, Weasley, Macmillan and Zabini and Miss Granger and Lovegood. I assume there must be a very important thing you wish to discuss for so many of our 7th years to show up to my office; something to do with the Prank War, perhaps?" Dumbledore chirped happily, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Yes actually Professor, it is about the Prank War and it is important. There's an idea that I have and it'd be just perfect if we could have all the Professors in on it; it'd be much, much easier and better if we did." Hermione said.

"Well, are you going to tell me what it is? I'll see what I can do to help." He grinned at each of them. In turn, apart from Blaise who was just standing and listening to the discussion in the background, they all began to explain the details of the plan with Hermione voicing the finer parts.

"But unfortunately, as Blaise tells me, there isn't nearly enough of his leftover sleeping potion to last through Sunday night." Hermione stated subtly.

"No problem there, Miss Granger, if you just ask Severus to concoct some for you, I'm sure he will. You can also ask for that batch of Polyjuice potion that Mr Weasley will require while you're there, I'm pretty sure he already has some lacewing flies that are ready and if he gives you trouble say I gave permission." Dumbledore informed them. Ron's face started to turn as red as his hair and he looked away from everyone, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Oh, and I'll be sure to inform the other Professors as well of your little plan before dinner and I'll ask Minerva to get you a timetable for him."

"So, you are joining in then, Professor?" Ernie asked, giving a small smile.

"Of course I am! I wanted bigger and better and that's exactly what you've given me! It's a extremely well thought out plan and this is the first sign of House Unity that has been displayed so far which is what I was hoping would eventually happen-how could I not have agreed?! Besides, is there anyone in this school who deserves it more than Mr Malfoy?" Professor Dumbledore exclaimed excitedly. The students smiled at their Headmasters eagerness and excitement and Harry and Ron even slightly nodded their heads at his question.

"Well, I guess that's it then!" Said Hermione happily, clapping her hands together, "I guess I better go get the potions off of Snape now, come on Blaise, maybe he'll go easier on me if you're there. Thank you Professor!" Hermione headed out of the office first with Blaise trailing close behind her, followed by the others. "I'll see you in the common room, OK. Thanks for coming Ernie and Luna, I'll owl you tomorrow and you can let your respective houses know what's happening." She said once they were back in the corridors and waved to her friends, leaving no room for discussion, while dragging Blaise down the corridor with her by his robe's sleeve.

* * *

"Excuse me, Professor Snape," Hermione uncertainly called, knocking on the door and peering into the classroom. Upon seeing him sitting at his desk, marking some papers, Hermione hesitantly walked in and ushered Blaise in after her. Their presence seemed to not be acknowledged by the potions master until a good 4 minutes later when he finally looked up, but even then only really addressed Hermione.

"What do you want Ms Granger?" Snape asked in his monotone voice.

"I-We need a sleeping draft and a batch of Polyjuice potion, Professor." Hermione said rather uneasily. Snape raised a quizzical eyebrow and had a curious look in his eye.

"May I ask what for? You, Mr Potter and Mr Weasley off saving the world again so soon?" He said sarcastically.

"No Professor we aren't-it's for the Prank War." Hermione stated.

"The Prank War? Oh of course! Seeing as it's for the Prank War I'll just stop marking the lower years' work and make whatever potions the 7th years need. Sorry to disappoint Miss Granger but life doesn't work that way. I'll need a proper reason to brew those potions."

"Dumbledore gave us permission sir."

"Of course Dumbledore would say something like that for his favourite students." Snape muttered.

"It's for a prank on your Godson-Malfoy." Blaise stated, finally piping up and directing the attention away from Hermione to someone in his house who he'd probably go easier on. The statement made him stop, the curious glint in his eye grew and his face seemed to indicate that he was considering what was just said.

"A prank...on Mr Malfoy? Please tell me what 'clever' plan the amazing Golden Trio has thought of and I might consider helping you." Snape immediately disregarded what Blaise said, instead switching his attention back to Hermione and questioning her instead of her partner.

"Please sir, it's not just us 3-Blaise here is joining in too- hopefully the whole school as well if the other Slytherin's agree to join. There's not really that much time to explain the entire plan to you now sir, the potions need to start being made now if they're going to be ready for tomorrow. We really need the Polyjuice and sleeping draft if the plan's going to work." Hermione said somewhat defensively.

"The whole school? Very ambitious." Snape commented nonchalantly. "I must say Miss Granger, that asking for these potions now is all a bit last minutes if they're going to be used in less than 24 hours, don't you think? But, if these potions are needed so urgently then you can make it yourself." Snape said and walked quickly out the room, his black robes billowing behind him.

"Well, do you remember how to make the sleeping draft then? OK, good, if you brew that and I'll do the Polyjuice." Hermione walked to the back of the room to his supply closet, with Blaise once again trailing behind, and once they collected their ingredients they made their way to different desks in the classroom and started.

* * *

When dinner rolled around excitement for the next day and the hours after it happens were bubbling in the stomachs of the 6 students, although Blaise didn't show it much as he had to keep his act up as a double agent so as to make sure Malfoy isn't curious. Dumbledore, up on the teacher's table, was also showing well disguised signs of excitement but was only revealing his true feelings show when it was expected of Dumbledore to do so, being the slightly random Headmaster of Hogwarts. The other Professors however, didn't show any inclination that they were actually told of the big plan involving Draco, but they could only be so sure that they had because Dumbledore said that he'd tell them before dinner and they trusted him to keep his word. Just as dinner was coming to an end, Professor McGonagall rose from her chair at the front table and walked down the pathway between the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables, coming to a stop behind Hermione, Harry and Ron. Tapping Hermione gently on the shoulder and indicating the she follow her, Hermione got up and muttered an excuse about Head's duties to her friends, who luckily didn't question Draco's absence by McGonagall's side, and gave pointed looks to Harry and Ron to indicate that it wasn't mostly likely anything to do with what she had said, but probably the plan. Once outside the Great Hall, McGonagall turned to face Hermione and seemed to search her face and eyes with her own before deciding on something inside her head. Looking at Hermione head on, the Professor pursed her lips, and then reached inside her robes to pull out a new timetable and hand it over to her, a mixture of a small smirk and a smile taking over her usually frowning mouth.

"Here you go Miss Granger, like you needed. All are the same as now, save for the obvious difference." She said as Hermione skimmed her eyes over the piece of parchment, checking that it was indeed the same, as she had took the liberty after completing the Polyjuice to look at his present one to see what he had chosen. Saying her thanks, Hermione placed it in her robe pocket and then looked back up to McGonagall to see if there was anything else that needed to be said before she left. "That's it, I think. Good luck, to you and your friends. Make sure that it's everything Mr Malfoy deserves."


	9. House Identity Switch Part 1

For the 6 students the next day passed in a blur. Each had their own specific job to carry out which was very time consuming but essential for everything to run as smooth as they had planned.

Blaise had to keep Draco preoccupied throughout the whole day while the Hermione and Ron could finish some minor details before it started tonight. After Blaise's suggestion of spending another day at the Quidditch pitch was shot down, he dared Draco, knowing his fear of the Forbidden Forest, to see which one of them could spend the longest in its confines.

After receiving the letter from Hermione at breakfast saying that they could tell their houses about the plan whenever they wanted during the day; Luna, Ernie and Harry went around together telling both people from their own house to gather in the common room after dinner for some important business to be told, as well as people from the other houses. And, it wasn't like they didn't listen to Ernie and Luna any less than they did Harry, but when The Boy Who Lived told you to do something; you did it, especially the Gryffindors. They practically idolized him and the rest of the Golden Trio.

Ron, on the other hand, was busy physicking himself up so that he was mentally prepared to be turned into Pansy Parkinson. On top of that, Ron was also spying on Pansy throughout the day so that he could practice speaking the way she spoke, also noting that her voice had changed from squeaky one he remembered from his earlier years, he also practiced the way that she walked which earned quite a few weird glances from passersby, he also looked at who she spoke with and other things. He knew in the back of his mind that he was looking way too far into it, seeing as he was only going to be her for about an hour and probably wouldn't encounter any such problems as the scenario's he was creating in his head. Luckily though, Pansy didn't seem to notice her follower.

Once she checked on her two potions in Snape's room, Hermione went to go to the library to try figure out a plan to get rid of Pansy long enough for Ron to complete his task with Blaise and the other Slytherin's. She didn't want to use the same plan as they did in second year because Pansy was much, much, more clever than either Crabbe or Goyle. _'Maybe I could use her love for Malfoy against her..." _Hermione thought to herself. Mentally conjuring up an idea already, Hermione smirked to herself and searched the shelves for a specific book to help her. Once she found the right one, and the right bit of information, she closed the book and placed it back on the shelf where she found it, then hurriedly made her way back down to the dungeons to collect the potions.

* * *

When dinner came Ernie, Luna, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Blaise were sitting at their respective house tables' alert and anxious, worrying whether he was actually going to show up to dinner. Blaise had ditched Draco in the Forbidden Forest earlier without him realizing so that he could pour the sleeping draft into his goblet without him knowing any better. That's all they needed, all he had to do was drink the goblet and he'd be out cold straight away-not that it mattered though-all the professors knew what was happening and so wouldn't be worried, and all the student's would know soon. To make sure he drank the whole goblet as well, Blaise had poured hot Tabasco sauce all over the food that he had piled onto Draco's plate being the 'good' friend he was. After he finished tampering with his dinner, Blaise shot glares all around the students at the Slytherin table, making sure that they knew that if they so much as warned Draco that he shouldn't eat or drink, then they'd be as good as dead once Blaise was through with them.

Finally, the blonde Slytherin that they were waiting for made his appearance. He looked as if he was fuming, and after he threw himself onto the bench next to Blaise, he fixed his glare onto Blaise. Apparently he was so angry because Blaise had left him in the Forest by himself, without knowing when or where he went off to and about half an hour ago the 'oaf' Hagrid had found him in the Forest and kicked him out. When Draco protested that he wasn't in there alone, Hagrid only then mentioned that they were the only people in the Forest as Hagrid had been patrolling and if there had been anyone, they'd have left. Then, once he was finished ranting, he moved his glare to the stares of the Slytherin's that were near him who quickly looked away and continued doing whatever they were doing. It was only then when he had no one else to complain at that he started hungrily attacking his food seeing as he had been starved of anything since that morning. He devoured a whole chicken leg without any problems, and that's when the 5 other people shot Blaise curious and questioning glances wondering whether he actually did put the hot sauce on his food like they had planned. But, Blaise was just as confused as everyone else. Unless Draco had over the holidays developed immunity to spicy foods or a sudden liking to them, then it was news to him. Draco had gotten through no more than half of his steak and kidney pie with mash potatoes before Blaise started to notice the beads of sweat that were forming on his forehead, but was astonished to notice that Draco was still oblivious to anything.

Then, finally, when Draco had just about finished all his food, came the reaction that everyone was waiting for. He dropped his knife and fork suddenly and started to heavily pant, when that didn't cool down his fiery mouth, he started to frantically fan it with both of his hands-but that didn't work either. "H-H-Hot, hot, hot, my mouth-so hot!" He panted between gasps of cool air that didn't help him in the slightest. Searching around wildly with a crazed look in his eyes, his line of sight landed on his goblet. Wasting no time, Draco grabbed it with both his hands and gulped down as much as he could at a time. Once his pumpkin juice was gone and his mouth had only been sated a little bit, he had just about grasped another goblet before he keeled over backwards, falling off the bench and his head hitting the hard floor. Gasps resounded around the Slytherin table and from any other person that was watching Draco's strange antics, but none of them went to go check on their Prince. Blaise smirked at his unconscious form, and then moved his eyes to look at the Headmaster who conveniently just stood up, not missing a beat from when Draco passed out.

"I think that concludes dinner tonight students. Now, before you leave to go to your respective common rooms, I have some information. Any student that has a detention tonight is hereby excused from it, but will have to complete it later in the week which, if it is the case for you, you will be informed of tomorrow. I now believe that there is some important information for you all to be told, so if you'd all go back to your common rooms now." Dumbledore said vaguely hinting and information known to him and not many other people. He then left the hall with all the other professors, the Ravenclaw's soon left some time after by the lead of Luna. Ron soon left the hall, giving a discreet look to Blaise, signally that it was his cue to take on his next role. Reaching inside one of Draco's robes pockets to retrieve something that he had placed in their earlier, Blaise mentally went through everything that he was meant to do, slipped the object into his own pockets and walked over to where Pansy Parkinson was sitting with her friends. Tapping her shoulder, she turned around to see him jerk his head in the direction of the Entrance Hall implying that he wished to speak with her privately. Her friends giggled in an annoying girly manner to which Pansy smirked and Blaise rolled his eyes at. Once in the Entrance Hall, Blaise pulled out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her.

* * *

"Here." Blaise said. "This fell out of Draco's pocket just now. It's addressed to you; I thought you might like it." Staring at the letter, Pansy sported a large grin which quickly faded into a more menacing one as her eyes snapped back to Blaise standing in front of her.

"Thanks, I guess." She said feigning nonchalance. "Now, you've delivered what you needed to, no need to just stand there unless there's something else." She snapped. Blaise smirked knowingly and held up his hands in mock surrender, backing away down around a corner. Pansy really should've known better though, Blaise didn't really disappear as she had so hoped; he merely disappeared behind a corner and was waiting to hear the sound of a body hitting the floor. He wasn't kept waiting long. Swaggering back around the corner he couldn't help but think that Hermione had really outdone herself this time. Picking her up by her arms, he dragged her body down the corridor and stopped just outside a broom cupboard near the Slytherin common room where he knew Ron would be waiting. Soon, a figure emerged and once he was in the light, Blaise saw that it was Ron. Gingerly, he plucked a hair from Pansy's head and plopped it into a hipflask that contained the polyjuice potion; he grimaced a bit and then placed the bottle back in his robe pockets before helping Blaise lift Pansy into the broom cupboard and locking it. They then made their way into the Slytherin common room and Blaise went upstairs to fetch one of Pansy's uniforms for Ron to wear once he drank the potion, which Ron had obviously did while Blaise was gone. Shielding his eyes from the burning sight, Blaise blindly threw her clothes at him-or more like her-and all but ran back up the stairs to give her some privacy while she changed.

"I'm decent!" Ron called to Blaise in his deep male voice that clearly did not accompany the Slytherin girl's body. "So I'm ready to go then sh-"

"Oh Merlin shut up!" Blaise said trying to stop himself from gagging. "Just don't speak for the next hour OK? I can't handle seeing you like-like this and sounding like, well, like you do now." Ron opened his mouth as if to say something, but then thought better of it and kept it closed, instead giving a terse nod in answer. Together they left the common room in silence and made their way back up to the Great Hall to collect their housemates.

* * *

Once Ron, Blaise, Pansy, the Ravenclaw's and the professors had left the Great Hall, Hermione had stood up and holding her head high, she didn't allow herself to be intimidated as she walked purposefully over to the Slytherin table. She got confused looks from all of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor except from Harry and Ernie who knew her purpose for going over there. The two houses were watching her intently, specifically Harry and Ernie to back her up in the first sign of danger that Slytherin starts to give her. As she got closer to their table some students started to hiss at her presence, others were taunting her only loud enough for her to hear, rude comments and cursing were muttered under their breaths and a good amount were using the word 'mudblood' in most comments. But, 'mudblood' didn't bother her anymore, not matter whoever or how many people called her it. It had happened so many times that it had been worn out; the word didn't hurt her like it used to, it was only now accompanied with a numb feeling. No wands were drawn however, as they saw the watchful eyes from the other tables and knew that it'd be pointless to start anything when they were so greatly outnumbered-not that they weren't any good at duelling, they were practically the best especially at the dark arts-it was just self-preservation and all that. They didn't falter one bit at their string of insults as she came over and levitated Draco, but as Hermione was on her way out of the Hall with Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, one of Pansy's friends had gotten her wand out and was ready to curse her but got momentarily distracted by Blaise's and 'Pansy's' reappearance long enough for Hermione to leave unscathed.

* * *

Hermione followed the Hufflepuff's back and into their common room with Draco despite the strange glances that see was occasionally given. She dropped Draco's body onto the canary yellow sofa, and then stepped into a corner of the room that wasn't as filled as the rest and just waited patiently in the background for everyone to be ready. The Hufflepuff's were waiting quietly and with patience as they waited for Ernie to be ready to tell them what was happening, probably hoping that he'd have an explanation for why a knocked out Draco and Hermione were in their common room. Hermione could only be imagining the amount of noise that the Gryffindors were currently making, as they were her house she knew them better than the other 3 and she hoped that they'd actually be quiet and listened to Harry when he asked them. He was the only one in there that knew, and she knew from experience that Harry wasn't so authoritative to control a large crowd. She smirked to herself; Hermione loved it when a plan came together.

* * *

The Gryffindor common room:  
"OK everyone-quiet please! We've got some important business to go through-so if you could just listen! Thanks." Harry shouted to every Gryffindor that was squished into the common room. "OK so, who here likes the Slytherins?" Harry's question was met by silence. "OK, good, we're all on the same page. Who here would like to help prank the ferret Head Boy?" This time Harry's question was met by an almighty applause and shouts of questions on how they're going to do it. "Quiet please! I need as many of you as possible in on this if it's going to work, so I need you all to listen. Good, here's what we're going to do..."

_In the Ravenclaw common room:  
"Malfoy is going to look a bit different from what he normally does, so it'll be easy for us to forget that it's him and just pretend that he's a normal Hufflepuff. He'll be wearing their uniform, of course, opposed to his Slytherin robes; and, as a warning, he'll have the same hairstyle except it'll be a different colour and his eyes will be different as well." Luna told all Ravenclaw's present in the common room once they all filled in._

Hufflepuff common room:  
"Whenever you see him now, remember that he's not a Slytherin and never has been, he's always been a Hufflepuff and we're all friends so we all have to stop hating him and act like we've been friends for years." Ernie said to his housemates as they eagerly listened, hanging onto his every word.

Down in the dungeons:  
"Basically the whole school is going to prank Draco. I know this means teaming up with the blood traitors, mudbloods and the other irritating people and houses-but this is our chance to get back at the git without being singularly responsible! All we need to do is pretend that he's a blood traitor and in Hufflepuff-it'll be easy! He won't even be wearing Slytherin robes or look the same! He'll just be another badger!" Blaise said persuasively to all of Slytherin as their eyes glistened at the brilliant opportunity. 'Pansy' just sat with her friends and pretended to listen intently to everything that Blaise was saying, all the while keeping his promise and not speaking unless it was demanded of him. As the most popular girl in Slytherin, 'Pansy' used her position to her fullest extent knowing that practically all of the girls would jump to be in once she was.

"So are you in?" Was the question that Ernie, Luna, Harry and Blaise asked the students in the common room, all the replies were the same: eager nods of their heads, cunning grins, evil smirks and mischievous glints in their eyes.

_Back in the Ravenclaw common room:  
"But how will we know which one is Malfoy?" A fifth year Ravenclaw asked Luna._

"I suspect he'll be the one who will try rejoin his real house, or the one that'll start accusing people maybe."Luna said dreamily.

Once Harry finished briefing the Gryffindors, he let them go up to their dormitories buzzing with excitement, stay in the common room where they'd chatter about it with their friends or just do whatever they want. He had to wait for Ron to return though, then they'd both go over to the Hufflepuff common room together and help Hermione transfigure his robes and change his hair and eye colour. Thankfully Ron showed up quite quickly, back looking like his regular self and in his proper robes, having finished the Slytherin brief around about the same time as Harry and the other houses.

* * *

"Finally, you're here." Hermione greeted Harry and Ron as she opened the portrait door for them, then lowered her voice into a quite whisper, "There are still quite a few Hufflepuffs in the common room and some of them have been trying to draw on his face or hex him in this new found opportunity where he's unconscious, so one of us is going to have to probably stay here until morning to make sure that none of them do anything. Of course, most of the girls are keeping the boys in line but during their spare time they're fawning over him. It's ridiculous." She rolled her eyes at the strange antics of them causing Harry and Ron to stifle a bout of giggles and smirk at her. Moving out of the way to let them in, they made their way over to the Slytherin who was sprawled on the sofa. Hermione took out her wand, mentally recalling the spells that she needed to use and the movements that went with it, but before she did anything she said to the two boys, "If I do his robes, you can do his hair and eyes without any trouble, right?" They rolled their eyes at her muttering, 'Yes 'Mione, we've been through this.'

"We're not that bad at Charms." Harry pointed out as he too withdrew his wand. Hermione just smirked but in her head she did remind herself that it was true, they weren't as bad as some of the people in their class.

"Remember his hair should either be-"

"Yeah, yeah 'Mione-we know." Ron said smiling at the slightly guilty look on his girlfriend's face. They got to work straight away with looks of pure concentration taking over their faces as the charms were pretty advanced and so required as much from them. The 3 of them finished a good half hour later, and by then more than half the Hufflepuff's that had been in the common room had left-actually only 3 people were left; Ernie, Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith.

"Hey, um, Ernie, do you think one of us could stay here? It's just some of them were talking about interfering-you know, like hexing him or drawing things on his face-just to make sure they don't."

"No need, if it means so much I won't mind just sleeping at the top of the stairs or something. Don't argue Hermione, I don't mind, I have as much as a part as you so let me help. You need to get back anyway, to change his room into Hufflepuff colours and other things." He argued but then added cheekily, "This is our common room anyway and I can just kick you out. So go on, get out of here! Hannah'll go get you when he wakes up-we found a secret passage way to all the common rooms." He gently shoved them out of the room and then closed the door.

"You did remember to change the Slytherin password, didn't you Ron?" Hermione asked as they made their way back towards their own common rooms.

"Yes, I did. It was a bit difficult to convince Salazar to change it-he seems to like routine-but then when I did convince him, I had to think of a new password and that was a bit difficult coming up with something he approved of, but I managed. They all know to." Ron added as he saw Hermione open her mouth to ask another question.

"Good, good." Hermione breathed. "Well, this is my stop. I'll see you tomorrow and we can see Malfoy practically explode in anger." She waved goodbye to her friends, turned and walked up the stairs and entered the Head's Dorm. She couldn't sleep much though-she was way too excited and nervous.


	10. House Identity Switch Part 2

**A/N-I am so sorry this too so long! I just had so much stuff to do; like school, my other Dramione story(Fate Has It In For Me) and on top of that, I wasn't really sure how to write it. But it's up now! I'm sorry if it didn't live up to your expectations. **

* * *

Draco woke up the next morning feeling stiff and unable to remember what exactly happened yesterday. He didn't even remember finishing dinner...Or even starting it for that matter. His last memory? Well...He was just so confused at the moment that he wasn't sure whether he had any memories.

Lazily he opened his eyes to see the ceiling-or the floor-Draco wasn't too sure at the moment, all he knew was that it looked different from usual as his head was stuck in the clouds. And boy were those clouds thick. Slowly he moved his aching arms and pushed himself up into a sitting position as he regained enough sense to figure out that he was staring at the ceiling and had spent the night on the floor. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand as he regained the rest of his sense. _'Wait...Why am I on the floor...?'_ He thought curiously to himself. Coming to this realisation Draco quickly took his hand away from his face and scrambled to his feet, taking in what the room looked like for the first time since he woke up. With a horrified face, Draco looked at the yellow and black room that had a couple of paintings of their house symbol: The badger. "What am I doing in here? _How'd _I get in here?!" Draco whispered to himself in a very quiet, horror-filled voice as if someone may hear him. Suddenly he heard some footsteps coming down the stairs and the faint sound of someone whistling; he whipped around to see who it was soon the head of Ernie Macmillan appeared.

"Oh, morning Draco! Why aren't you in the Heads Dorm with Hermione? You never usually woke up this early in the last years, and you haven't been back to the den since you got Head Boy position, so what's so special about today?" He said cheerfully as if he'd seen and spoken to Draco every day for years. Draco gave one look at the happy Hufflepuff, who was waiting for some form of an answer, and ran as fast as he could out of the common room. He was going to go to the one place where he knew everything would make sense: the Slytherin Common room, and lucky for him being Head Boy, he knew the password and he also knew that it wasn't due to be changed yet-but he should know better than anyone that not everyone plays by the rules.

* * *

As soon as Draco left, Ernie gave a mischievous smirk that any Slytherin would be proud of, turned around and ran back up a couple of steps to see Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith who both had eager looks on their faces. "Hannah, take the secret passage to the Heads Dorm and warn Hermione that Draco may be coming and then go to the Slytherin common room-Blaise will be there waiting- and tell them both, 'The snake has left the badgers den.' Be quick-they'll need the warning. Then once they're done, you can go and tell Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, got it?" Hannah nodded and rushed down the rest of the stairs and through a secret passage (That only the Hufflepuff's have found) linking all the common rooms in the school together. Ernie then turned to Zach, "You go in everyone's room and tell them that it's starting and to remember what the plan is for when we go to breakfast." Zach quickly took off up the stairs heading to all the boys dorms and then yelling to all the girls so loudly it must've been heard at the other end of the castle.

* * *

I rounded the last corner in the dungeons before I came across the Slytherin common room, and broke into a quick sprint until I reached the end of that corridor. After balancing myself from almost falling over because I stopped so quickly, I ran as fast as I could down the stairs to the portrait without tripping.

"Parselmouth." I breathed to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. I didn't know whether it was because I woke him from his sleep just to get into the common room or because he had developed a sudden dislike for me, but as he opened his eyes, his lips curled into a sneer of disgust.

"I'm not letting you in, you unworthy piece of filth." He spat, eyeing me distastefully.

"I'm not an unworthy piece of filth! Besides, you have to let me in, it's the right password whether you like me or not!" I spat right back at him. If he was going to spew out insults to me and not bother to hide his disgust, why should I even waste pleasantries with him?! He may be the founder of my house but that didn't mean I had to pretend to like him. "Parselmouth."

"It's not even the right password, Blood Traitor, so you are not gaining entrance. Even if it was, I wouldn't allow filth like you to spoil the superior Purebloods."

"_Wrong password?! Blood Traitor?! _What you been drinking Salazar? I'm Head Boy, I know all the passwords in the school and it just so happens that Parselmouth is the password for the Slytherin common room, and just because Head Girl is a mu-mudblood," I managed to force out the word since not using it in ages, developing those-*gags*-fee-feelings for-*gags again*-Granger, and feeling slightly hypocritical the other day when I got mad at fellow teammates when they used it when talking about her. "Does not automatically make me a Blood Traitor."

"You mean the password _was _Parselmouth. Miss Parkinson managed to convince me yesterday evening to change it. And you stupid child, you are not Head Boy, that position belongs to the young Draco Malfoy," He spoke my name fondly if not recognising that I was, in fact, standing right in front of him, begging for entrance to the common room. "Not you! Now run along back upstairs to your rightful common room."

"What?! _What_?! Salazar you're delusional! I _am_ Draco Malfoy! And I _am _Head Boy! See the badge!" I yelled bewildered, pointing frantically at the Head Boy badge to prove my point.

"Don't try to kid yourself; you look nothing like Draco Malfoy._ And _I didn't think it was in your nature to steal things, whoever you are, but rest assured Draco won't be too happy to find out that you've stolen his badge and if he comes here, I'll be sure to tell him." Salazar sneered. "Now, who are you anyway? So I can point him in the right direction."

"I told you, _I am Draco Malfoy!_ Now stop with your stupidity and let me in the common room!" I yelled, now banging on the portrait, hoping to alert someone to my presence. Thankfully, it didn't take long for someone to save me from my distress from the inside. _'Finally,' _I mentally sighed, _'Someone who I like and doesn't hate me.' _

"What you doing here Malfoy?" Blaise sneered mirroring the disgust that was apparent on Salazar's face.

"What is this?! 'Hate Draco day'?!" I said exasperatedly. He didn't give any form of recognition but instead looked me up and down in a superior manner for a while, and looking down at me from his height, his curled his lip even more in disgust.

"What is it then? Lost your way?" He said impatiently.

"Blaise, mate, I think I'm going mental. I woke up in the Hufflepuff common room and then one of the insufferable little Puff's started talking to me, so I came down here because I knew I'd get some answers but then apparently Parkinson changed the password and I wasn't told about it, and then, Salazar claims not to recognise me as who I am-Draco Malfoy-Head Boy. What is going on?!"

"I think you're right, you have gone mental-but you probably always were, right? Being a Blood Traitor and all. First, we are not friends and never have been; second, never come back down here because there is no way that you're ever going to get answers or be welcome; third, the password has not been changed, it's been the same for the past week-not like you should know what is anyway-even if you are Head Boy. Fourth, Salazar shouldn't have to remember a Traitors face such as yours, so it's no surprise that he forgot who you are." He spat. I knew Blaise better than he gave me credit for though, I knew everything he was saying was lies-he dropped the prejudices after the war, though it wasn't as if he was a full supporter of them in the first place-and none of the venom actually reached his eyes.

"Lies. I can see it in your eyes that you don't mean any of that! I know you better than you give me credit for Blaise. Now let me in, I need to speak to someone with enough sense to not lie to me and think they could get away with it." I said as I tried to push past Blaise's slightly larger form into the common room, but he was blocking my way and didn't budge in the slightest.

"Can't let you do that. See, you might not come out in one piece." I quickly pulled my wand out of my robe pocket, shoved Blaise against the wall and pointed my wand at his face. He seemed unusually relaxed and unfazed though, which was unnerving to say the least since I knew he wouldn't act like that on a normal day. Blaise snickered. "Nice wand you've got there. Unicorn hair, is it? Suits you, that core does."

"And what exactly is _that_supposed to mean?" I growled, pressing my wand harder against his throat.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." He said vaguely. I glared at him a bit longer while he just seemed to try to contain his laughter, until we heard hurried footsteps coming towards where we were. I quickly released him, thinking that the footsteps could belong to a teacher and stepped away. He openly chuckled now without the pressure in his neck.

"Draco?! What are you doing down here?" A voice that I knew all too well that belonged to my fellow head, rang out across the corridor.

"Trying to get some business sorted Granger, problem?" I asked her almost a bit harshly.

"Honestly Draco, I told you to leave it!" She lectured as she walked purposefully towards us, wand in hand. "It was just a stupid prank; you took away points and already got your revenge. There's no point in picking a fight with Zabini."

"I don't know what the bloody hell your on about Granger; being pranked and taking away points because of it, because I haven't done that. I don't know why you suddenly thought you could call me _Draco _and on top of that, what are you doing down here anyway?"

She paused a bit longer than necessary to seem to think of a suitable answer, but it wasn't too noticeable as she replied just as quick. "Salazar told Snape that there was a disturbance down by the Slytherin common room. Clearly, he wasn't bothered enough to sort it out himself, so sent me down as his replacement." My eyes flickered over to the portrait of Slytherin, as far as I noticed, he'd been in his portrait the whole time; although the door was open and the frame was hidden from view. "Zabini, are you going to go up to the Great Hall for breakfast or are you going to loiter around the dungeons all day?" She said, turning to face Blaise and taking on a firm tone of voice that I had never heard her use before. "I suggest you choose the former, or go back inside your snake pit."

"Fine," Blaise replied airily, turning to go back inside the common room. "Make sure you don't come down here again Malfoy, unless it's for potions." He closed the door loudly, and when I looked back to where Granger was standing, I saw that she was no longer there but instead halfway down the corridor.

"Oi! Granger! I want some bloody answers! Where are you going?!" I yelled as I jogged after her, trying to catch up. I wanted answers and I wanted them now; everyone was acting strange and differently towards me and I wanted to know why. Obviously, the Slytherin's seemed to not want to tell me anything judging from Salazar's and Blaise's reactions-so my only way of finding out was, unfortunately, Granger.

"Getting breakfast. You coming or what?" She called back, completely disregarding the beginning of what I said. I heavily sighed and ran the rest of the way to her and then walked by her side as I fell into step with her.

* * *

Hermione's P.O.V

The whole way up to the Great Hall, Malfoy kept pestering me with questions with about _'What the bloody hell was going on'. _He was becoming difficult and annoying with the questions that I kept on evading and refused to answer, and because of that, he quickly became angry. By the time he had had enough of not getting anywhere in his interrogation, he stormed off in front of me. I hesitantly paused as I came to the top of the staircase. I could hear an argument going on that seemed to be only a little bit in front of where I was standing, and one of the voices sounded like Malfoy's. "This isn't good." I whispered to myself as I drew my wand and slowly climbed the rest of the steps.

"What is everyone smoking?! I am _not_ 'friends' with the likes of you-never will be, never have been-and I don't know what's gone wrong with your brains-if you had any to begin with-but I _am_ Slytherin's Prince, Head Boy _and _as close to friends as you'll ever get." I saw Malfoy yelling to Parkinson, Goyle and a young 4th year Hufflepuff. My eyes flickered over the scene, assessing it, but not really taking in that much. So far, all I noticed was that, although all three parties had drawn their wands, no spells had seemed to be thrown. But that's when my eyes snapped back over to where Parkinson was standing. Parkinson. _Pansy Parkinson._The girl who had no idea what was going on; the girl that had no idea who that person was and why they were calling him Draco Malfoy; why exactly there was another Draco Malfoy in Hufflepuff. She was probably wondering just as much as Malfoy was what exactly was happening.

"But we _are_ Draco! Don't you remember me? Surely you do." The young girl pleaded. She looked as if she was going to step closer to him, but stopped when she saw his glare. "I'm your _girlfriend_. _Sarah, _Sarah Boot."

"Oh Merlin." I muttered, horrified to myself as I 'face-palmed', as the Muggles called it.

Girlfriend? _Girlfriend?! _She was his..._girlfriend?_ How stupid could that girl be?! Why would his girlfriend be some stupid _4th year? _If someone was going to pretend to be his girlfriend, they should at least be in a more reasonable or closer year. Like me-wait no, not me. For example, yes me, but not me because I don't want to be his girlfriend-even if it is only pretend. A better example would be Lavender or Pavarti. Yes, if anything his girlfriend should be Lavender or Pavarti.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand; now that I think about it, that exact Hufflepuff was one of the girls that were fawning over him yesterday when he was dumped on the sofa. I quickly trotted up the rest of the stairs and made my way over to them before someone had to pay for Sarah's _stupid_mistake.

"What?! _What?!_ I need whatever you're smoking _Boot_because it seems to be making you believe that you've conquered your impossible dreams," He sneered, making wild gestures that were probably adding to Parkinson's confusion. It seemed that while sneering down at the young girl, Malfoy spotted me walking towards them. "Ah, here's Granger. No doubt you'll have answers for me, right? Like, first explaining to me, what exactly did you do to me?"

"I, um-" I stuttered, turning a dark shade of pink because of his sudden accusation so early on-which was completely right-and because I was put on the spot.

"And if you don't know where to start, how about this morning, when I woke up on the floor of the Hufflepuff common room? Or when I realised I don't ever remember leaving the Great Hall after dinner yesterday? Or when I was given such a wide berth at the Slytherin table that it was as if I had Dragon Pox, then suddenly that old bat told me to go over to the Hufflepuff table where I belong? Tell me Granger, when was I ever a fucking Hufflepuff?!"

"Draco, really, I-"

"No! Don't 'Draco' me! Don't _ever_ call me that! I honestly don't know what you did, but I-" Malfoy's rant was cut short as everyone chose that moment, quite unusually, to come out of the Hall all at the same time. The loud murmur of conversation from the students, insults and hisses from the Slytherin's, drowned Malfoy out. If that wasn't all, the pure look of utter hatred stung a part of Hermione's heart, and she wasn't sure why. People even started shoving Malfoy out of their way, he was a strongly built boy though (as I would know considering I saw him-No! No, I shouldn't be thinking of that), and he wasn't exactly being pushed to the ground and trampled on; but there was more than one person pushing him at a time and although he was just stumbling a bit, it was truly a pathetic sight. I knew I was being stupid and silly. _Really _silly; but I was unable to bear the sight any longer. Before I got just as caught up in the throng of students as Malfoy had, I turned around and went in the same direction as them, breaking off after a while to head down to the dungeons, which I had with the Hufflepuff's. I had doubt that Malfoy wouldn't show up for class, not because he didn't know what classes he had because I slipped the timetable into his pocket on the way up the stairs to the Great Hall, but because he couldn't face showing up to potions. Because he couldn't come to potions looking like a Hufflepuff in front of his Godfather-even though he knew what was happening-because he didn't know what to do with himself in a room of Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's. Maybe because he...No.

_'Stop it Hermione,' _I mentally berated myself as I sat down at an empty desk at the back of the classroom. _'At least if he shows up I'll know that he hasn't been trampled, or seriously injured and I won't feel that's it's all my fault because he won't be hurt. Like how he was guilty about me almost dying when he played out his plan...' _Making my mind up, I let out a short sigh and opened my potions book, reading from where I left off. I was remotely aware of everyone filing into the room, but no one sat next to me, for which I was grateful; I didn't want some incompetent mucking up my potion and making me get a lower mark than I should have. Harry and Ron weren't in this class, nor were many of the Gryffindor's that I liked, so I usually sat alone anyway; it wasn't much of consequence to me. I went back to my reading and became quickly immersed in it as I read about my favourite potion: Amortentia. Granted the only time I had made the love potion was for Fred and George, as a little summer job last year, for them to sell in their shop; but I still loved making it because of the complexity and I never got tired of smelling it. Since back in 6th year when I smelt it in Slughorn's class, to the present day, I still smelt new parchment, freshly mown grass and spearmint toothpaste. I was so caught up in my musings about the love potion that I jumped in shock a little bit when I saw someone sit down next to me.

"Draco," I chirped in a fake cheery voice. I saw no obvious injuries on him, which I was reasonably happy about because it meant that he wasn't hurt because of me and my prank.

"Don't. Call. Me. Draco." He ground out, sounding beyond angry or irritated.

"Fine," I hissed under my breath as the door opened and Snape walked in. "What are you doing here?"

"Because I'm a Hufflepuff, aren't I Granger?" He sneered quietly, putting all his rage into his glare.

"I know that! I _mean_ why are you _here_, sitting next to me-the mudblood." I spat back, but I saw him flinch slightly at the word. "Go on-say it! If it makes you feel any better, say it! Call me a mudblood, do it."

"It's not going to make me feel better! Just shut up!" He said a bit louder than he would've liked, causing us to get a couple of questioning looks.

"_What are you doing here?"_

"Miss Granger I'd prefer it if you paid attention in my class. 10 points from Gryffindor." Snape cut off Draco's reply, looking at the pair of them with steely eyes. They kept quiet while Snape was talking, only sending each other death glares out the corner of their eyes, until the instructions had been finished being written on the blackboard and they turned away to collect their ingredients.

"I'm here _Granger, _because you took away _my house_ and the people that are the closest thing I will ever have to _friends._" He snarled, and then added in an undertone, "Though there nothing like yours."

* * *

**A/N-I decided to make Sarah Boot, Terry Boot's younger sister-just in case you were wondering...  
**  
**Aww, who's feeling sorry for Draco? I am...  
**  
**Not really that long, but it'll continue (obviously) next chapter. Anything you want me to make happen?**


	11. I Need Help

So, I've kind of backed myself into a corner with the next chapter of this story because I have a bad case of writers block.

Like, I have a brief plan of what _should _happen in most parts, but in others I don't really which is bad because now I'm in this situation. I don't really know if you understand what I mean by this or not, but I can do most of my plans but sometimes, I don't really know how to get to that part? Do you know what I mean? Anyway, I want to get out of this corner so I can do more updates while I'm off school for Christmas, but to do that I need your help.

I'm not going to leave it up to just you to create the new chapter because that'll almost be like abandoning the story when it started to get difficult. What I'm asking is that I could do like a collaboration with someone and we could write the chapter together? I don't know? Maybe you just give a plot outline of the continuing chapter for me or give me the first chapter or something. Whatever you feel like.

PM me to help! The quicker I get some sort of help or I have an epiphany or something, the quicker the next one is up!


	12. House Identity Switch Part 3

**A/N-Absolutely no idea how many parts 'House Identity Switch' this is going to have before I move on to another chapter title, so we can only wonder, but I think this'll be my last. I have decided, however, to give this chapter an alternate name, which is ****_'The Illegal Uses of Foxglove'. _****Just a bit of mind control in this, so remember that that's the reason Hermione is so OOC. I had quite a bit of fun writing some of these parts and we get to see some more Dramione action happening! **

**So, I came to realise that some of you were confused as to how Draco concluded that Hermione was the reason behind this and how he could've figured out what happened. Maybe it wasn't all of you who failed to see the clues, but for those who did, here's a loongg explanation...**

**There weren't any specific clues pointing towards Hermione that Draco could've found, but he needed someone to blame and the only person he saw fit was Hermione. Because ****_'whatever happened'_**** would've taken a very well organised and intelligent person to do it. On top of that, most of the time something went wrong, Hermione showed up.**  
**You have to remember that Draco is very intelligent too and all that day there had been weird goings on that pointed that something was wrong; he would've been able to come to some conclusion. First thing that happened was that he actually woke up in the Hufflepuff common room, where Ernie greeted him, with no animosity. He said that Draco never woke up that early in the previous years and asked why he hasn't returned to the 'den'. That clearly shows something is up because Draco hasn't anything to do with Hufflepuff all his life. Next, he was continuously being insulted and being called a Blood Traitor by Salazar and Blaise. He could tell that Blaise was lying about everything he said; and he found it strange that Salazar (and later on Pansy) didn't recognise him. Then when Hermione conveniently came down to dungeons, and had to think for a couple of seconds for a reason why she was there-which Draco caught on to-which made him suspicious of her. Then, at breakfast, he was asked to leave the Slytherin table (where he was sitting; being ignored and even more insulted) to go to his own house table: Hufflepuff. Then he stormed out of the Hall, which is when he found Pansy, Goyle and that Hufflepuff 4th year. Obviously, Pansy and Goyle were acting as if they hated him, and the Hufflepuff was pretending to be his girlfriend-which greatly confused and annoyed him. He hasn't actually seen that he doesn't look like himself ****_yet_****, but he has worked out that he's probably not wearing Slytherin robes, instead Hufflepuff, which is why people think he belongs there.**

**Sorry if it wasn't properly explained. If there are any more questions, ask!**

**This is probably the longest chapter I've written yet...**

**Thanks a million to Kermit 304 who basically handed me the plot for this chapter. **

**enjoy :)**

* * *

Potions passed with very little drama. They both worked in silence after Draco's small confession and while anger was still radiating off him, Hermione began to radiate guilt. _'You've taken away the people that are the closest thing l will ever have to friends._' Yes, that might be true; Blaise had treated him just as foully as every other Slytherin. Nevertheless, Hermione never remembered him ever counting Goyle or Pansy as one of his 'friends'. An annoying, lovesick _pug _maybe, but friend? No. A thickheaded minion that could do his dirty work for him, yes, but again, friend? No, definitely not. _'I could be wrong though,'_ Hermione thought. It wasn't as if she actually knew Draco or his thought on things-like what his definition of 'friends' was- and she didn't pretend to. It was just that, from what she saw, Draco didn't hold that much interest in either of them and that, to Hermione, who had loads of friends, wasn't how friends were treated.

It was quite sad really...

After Potions, Hermione quickly left their desk and all but ran to meet up with Ron and Harry, as she needed to escape the guilt. In her rush though, she didn't notice that Draco was following her inconspicuously. She met up with Harry outside his and Ron's Charms class, but there was a distinct absence of their ginger friend.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked as she fell into step with Harry as they headed off to their Transfiguration class together with, again, the Hufflepuffs.

"I think Zabini is having too much fun playing the evil Slytherin and picking on muggle-borns and 'blood traitors'. You've corrupted him all for the good of teaching Malfoy a lesson." Harry answered, giving Hermione a look that said, 'You made the only decent Slytherin evil like the rest of them.'

"What did he do?" Hermione asked worriedly-Ron was her boyfriend after all, not just her best friend.

"Let's just say that when you call him a pig, it is now a genuinely accurate description." Harry grimaced.

"Blaise turned him into a pig?! But that's Transfiguration not Charms!" Hermione gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "He's OK, isn't he? Did you take him to-"

"Yes, yes Hermione, he's perfectly fine. Flitwick told me to take him to Madam Pomfrey when it happened; and I heard him give Zabini a detention when the laughter died down. And...He wasn't transfigured into a pig-he was just given a pig's tail. Quite like Dudley was by Hagrid..."

"Oh, well then, that's good, isn't it? He'll have the tail off soon enough and he can join us in the rest of our lessons this afternoon."

"I don't know 'Mione; I can almost imagine anyone that's going there because of a consequence of the Prank War, being sent away by Dumbledore who's sitting, waiting for them on one of the beds."

"Nonsense Harry, I'm sure Madam Pomfrey would've kicked him out." Hermione said. She was just about to open her mouth to say something else, when she caught movement of a certain Hufflepuff behind them, probably listening in on their conversation being the only way that he could get any information. Not entirely true though, he could go to the Hufflepuffs, but he wasn't ready to give in just yet. Same goes with asking the Ravenclaws or Gryffindors.

"Still, I think it's something he'd do." Harry said, and then lowered his voice to a whisper, "So how's it going with Malfoy? I understand you had Advanced Potions last with the Hufflepuffs. Did he show up?"

"Why don't you ask the man himself? He's shadowing us after all." Hermione commented dryly, twirling around to face Draco who'd frozen in his tracks, but still stood in his intimidating fashion and waited for someone to speak. "Well, you going to answer Harry then Draco?" She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot, patiently waiting for him to answer.

"Potter," Draco looked at him haughtily. "I'll have you know that I'm not just going to roll over and give in. Good for Blaise to attach that tail to your Weasel and he can go get it removed to save him the humiliation, but I can't be so easily restored like him because of the nature of Granger's plan. But, just because of that, I'm not going to avoid everyone by hiding out in the Head's Dorm." He sneered. "Now if you excuse me Potter and Granger, I have to get to Transfiguration." He roughly pushed past them and threw open McGonagall's classroom door and stormed in.

"_What was that_?" Harry asked bewildered, as he walked into the class, with Hermione at his side and sat at their seats, which were furthest away from Draco who was sitting by himself at the back. If a Hufflepuff or even Gryffindor looked as if they were going to occupy the empty seat, Draco would send a glare their way and if that wasn't enough to deter them, all he had to do was stand up and take a menacing step towards them. As they sat down, Hermione began to explain to him what had happened in the Dungeons before breakfast, outside the Great Hall and a couple of minutes ago in Potions. Soon, Harry was up to speed about what Draco did and didn't know. "So...he thinks it's just _your _fault?"

"Yes. Mine and no one else's; even though he's probably still confused about why everyone is acting strangely to him."

"Do you think he's going to follow you all day?" Harry asked curiously.

"I-I don't know. I honestly haven't thought about it. He'd probably prefer to just sulk by himself by the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest or something, than hang around me."

"Perhaps." They never got to say anymore as that was the moment that McGonagall decided to silence everyone as they got to work learning about the spells needed in becoming an Animagus. Hermione quickly had her work done, as did one other student in the class-Draco-and when the Professor wasn't looking, he sent a note to Hermione. Scribbling a little message-or more like threat that he mostly definitely intended to carry out- in his neat, cursive handwriting, he quickly folded it into a shape of a dragon and charmed it to fly over into Hermione's hands. Curiously, she picked up the paper dragon that landed on her book carefully, but made sure not to disturb Harry who was still working. Holding the note to the side of her and under the table, so Harry couldn't read it without leaning over her, she looked around the classroom for a solid proof that her suspicions of who sent it were correct. Who else would send a dragon? She was just about to look back to the note, when her eyes caught a pair of stormy grey ones that were looking intently at her. Draco nodded curtly at Hermione, a wicked grin-similar to the one he wore when waiting for the Bludger to come towards him to hit at Knight- was worn upon his lips. His face, the pure epitome of devilishness, made Hermione quite nervous but a strange, unfamiliar kind where she had a faint, but defined feel of butterflies in her stomach. Careful, as to not attract attention, Hermione opened the note. It wasn't addressed to anyone, but it didn't really need to be, Hermione reasoned, as it was sent straight to whom it was intended for, but it also didn't have the senders name as a normal letter did. However, it didn't really need one either, she reasoned again; she knew exactly who sent it. She rolled her eyes at her overactive brain, and read it:

_'It's like you've forgotten who I am. _

_You've overlooked one tiny aspect of your stupid plan, my dear. I am still a Slytherin- I plan on having my revenge and I plan on winning this time._

_Watch your back._

_Sincerely,_  
_ Did that fall mess with your head?'_

Hermione only had time to read it once through, as when she'd finished, the dragon folded itself back up and then set itself alight; burning to ashes on her desk. She knew very well that he intended to carry out his promise and that she shouldn't take the threat lightly. Draco had been scorned harshly, by students and by teachers. Hermione never believed for a single moment that Draco would just let the culprits go unscathed with punishment for putting him through it. After all, the result of it was having his pride damaged, and he thought highly of his pride. She turned back to look at him one more time, after a small wind blew the ashes of her desk, to see him with the cruel grin still in place and after a threatening raise of his eyebrows, he broke eye contact. Hermione was starting to feel paranoid at the threat and, for her, the class couldn't finish quick enough. Harry was beginning to get suspicious of her fidgety behaviour next to him, and even more when she practically flew from her seat and all but ran out of the class without waiting for him. Draco grinned happily at the desired effect his little note had on the Gryffindor Princess and, after gathering his books, set off to his destination: the library. What Draco needed to find was something-be it a curse, charm, hex, potion or even a bit of Dark Magic-to help him scorn Hermione as badly as he had been, and he had the perfect idea of how best to ridicule her...

* * *

"Hermione, what was _that_? What had you so fidgety in Transfiguration?" Harry asked as he caught up with me.

"Nothing Harry. It was nothing, I-I promise." I replied as I looked around at the student filled corridor, seeing if I could spot a platinum blonde head anywhere in the crowd. He was nowhere to be seen, and, although it was meant to make me just that bit calmer, it made me even more nervous about where he was and what he was doing. Harry noticed my increased discomfort and placed a hand on my shoulder, but that had me almost jumping out of my skin.

"Something's wrong 'Mione. I can tell. You wouldn't be like this over nothing." Harry said seriously.

"Look Harry, I can fight my own battles. Go see Ron, make sure he's OK or if your theory about Dumbledore is correct. Do homework that you haven't completed yet-_try_ to do homework that you haven't completed yet without _my _help-anything. Just don't worry about me. Anyway, I've got to go back to the Head's Dorm. See you later." I said hurriedly and quickly turned around and headed back to the Dorm, leaving Harry standing confused in the corridor. I just hoped that Malfoy wasn't in there...

* * *

I left the library satisfied at my find, which was a close match to what I wanted to find when I entered, and quickly left the castle and headed down the hill towards the Greenhouses, which was my new destination. _'You can do this Draco. It's not technically giving in if you just play along with it for a couple of minutes, or however long it'll take to get what you what you need.' _Draco thought as he spotted the exact woman he wanted to tric-_ah, talk_ to.

"Professor Sprout." I greeted with an air of fake cheerfulness that I had practiced to perfection, so no one could sense my insincerity. She seemed quite shocked at my presence and tone of voice and stuttered a bit before she managed to say a coherent sentence.

"Mr Malfoy. What can I help you with?"" She said eyeing me warily.

"Well, since you're my Head of House and Professor of Herbology, I thought you could help me with something. See, I was in the library and I came across an interesting plant, you've probably heard of it. Its qualities are quite fascinating. I hear the Muggles steer clear of it because they think it's poisonous, otherwise they would've-" I said purposely rambling to grate on her nerves, so that she gave in without me having to give a proper explanation.

"Yes, yes. Take whatever you need Mr Malfoy; I don't have time for your incessant rambling. Just lock up the Greenhouses when you're finished-I have to get to a meeting with the Headmaster." She said and tossed the keys to me, which I easily caught with my Seeker skills. She never glanced back up at my face to see the victorious smirk in place there, but instead brushed past me and hobbled up the hill to the castle. I walked into the Greenhouse with purpose, taking out a page from my pocket that I ripped out of an extremely useful Herbology book in the library. I unfolded it and read through the contents, mentally congratulating myself on finding this piece of information. Using the ink drawing of the particular flower I was looking for, I searched around to see if I could find a match. After a couple of minutes, I was looking triumphantly down at the pretty, yet in the Muggles view, deadly flower. I took out my wand and slashed the stem of the foxglove so that the flowers sap trickled out into a little test-tube I had. Every couple of seconds I looked around myself; even though I was granted permission to the Greenhouse, I knew that the reason I was using the magical quality of the foxglove was looked down upon. If I was discovered to be using it to trick Grangers mind into thinking we were friends, then I'd be facing-at the very least-a year in Azkaban. See, the qualities of the foxglove sap was close to the Imperius Curse, but it was less detectable and you weren't able to break it. As soon as the toxin would enter a person's blood, the very first thing that the administrator told them, they'd believe without a doubt and without question until the poison passed. And, if what they were told was the complete opposite, parts of their brain would create false thoughts and memories to accompany it. It was a very useful and dangerous piece of Dark Magic.

I had to be _very _careful. If I made the potion wrong, it could kill her, which would mean even longer in Azkaban for murder. Most likely a life sentence. Maybe they'd just give me the Kiss on the spot for killing their Golden Girl. Once the tube was filled with the plants sap, I put a stopper on it, placed it in my pocket and repaired the foxglove's stem so that no one could piece the clues together. Congratulating myself once more on my luck, I left the Greenhouse and locked it up, following at least one of the rules. But it wasn't as if at the start of the year Dumbledore specifically said that there were to be no illegal pranks...

I headed back up the hill and, completely disregarding Blaise's warning, I headed back down to the dungeons. More precisely, Snapes office, for I had some unfinished business. The saps toxins were soon ready, as all that had to be done was for it to boil for five minutes in water. It was a pretty simple concoction, but that was why it was made illegal; because it was so simple, everyone was doing it to gain allies out of enemies and it soon got out of hand. While I left the potion to cool, I went to the back cupboard to search quickly through his supplies to find two more things that I needed before Snape came back. "Ah ha!" I whispered as a took two jars out and placed them on the desk. I unscrewed the lid to the jar that contained three roses and removed one of them. I placed a Charm on my hand to prevent cuts, began to remove the thorns from the rose stem, and coated them in the foxglove's toxins. I then placed the rose back and put it back in the cupboard where I had found it, then going to the next jar on the desk, I unscrewed that too and removed one water reed tube before placing that jar back in the cupboard and erasing any evidence that I was there before quickly leaving the office. I just had one more thing to do before I went back to the Head's Dorm...I had a very good feeling that there was the place that I'd meet Granger; or at least on the way there...

But first, I had to go find a Gryffindor.

* * *

I heard a noise outside the portrait entrance and, fearing that it was Malfoy, I shot off the sofa and immediately went into a defensive position facing the door; my wand was pointed steadily, ready to hit whatever came through. "Is that you Draco?" I asked with false sweetness to mask my fear, and, besides, I still had to keep up with the act. Whoever was outside stopped moving and became quiet, which only intensified my nervousness. Without warning, the door suddenly opened so quickly that I lost all my nerve and shot a _Stupefy_ at the wall where it rebounded towards me. I spent no time in ducking out the way as the spell died at the other side of the room. I snapped my head to see who entered when I heard a sharp bark of laughter that was definitely masculine. "Draco..." I whispered horrified.

"Yes, that's me Granger," He drawled as he walked further into the common room with such an air of innocence that it was unnerving. He always kept his eyes on me as he moved, in the same way that I kept mine on his as well as the firing end of my wand. "You going to put that down? Might...accidentally hurt someone."

"I don't intend to hurt anyone unless they give me a reason," I replied confidently. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since...Transfiguration." He looked at me and let a little laugh to himself, sensing my hesitation and defensiveness.

"Well if you've been hiding away up here from who-knows-what, no wonder you haven't seen me." It was at this point that he threw in a false smile that was with malice. "Don't you trust me?" He asked with fake hurt as he eyed the wand that was aimed at his chest.

"I don't trust people who send me threatening notes halfway through a class Malfoy. So, what are you planning then?" I asked venomously.

"A threat Granger? I did no such thing. It was merely a _warning. _Besides, you're acting as if this is a real war. It's not. It's a _Prank war._ I don't know what you think I'm going to do to you Granger, but I assure you a Prank war isn't about injuring people. Not physically at the least. No one has done so yet and I don't intend to be the first." Malfoy stated, looking me seriously in the eye. I sniffed haughtily and lowered my wand, placing it by my side.

"What are you going to do to me then?" I asked cautiously.

He walked closer to me and instinctively I raised my wand again so that it was pressed against his chest. He chuckled again and the vibrations rippled through my wand and up my arm. He confidently reached inside his pocket and I pressed my wand harder into his chest thinking that he was reaching for his wand. His snapped his eyes up to look into mine and then flickered them back down to look at this other robe pocket where I saw his wand was resting, I let my arm droop a bit knowing that I shouldn't have any worry over defending myself. He looked back into my brown eyes and smirked, "If it makes you feel better, you can take it. I promise not to use it, but if it puts you at ease, take it." Knowing that I shouldn't turn down such a good offer-not knowing what his Slytherin tendencies would make him do if I didn't accept-I reached my free hand into his pocket and removed his wand. Once it was firmly in my grasp, my eyes flickered down to it. Then I felt it-something was wrong...

Last time I held this wand, it didn't feel _this _powerful. I looked up at his face to see him holding some sort of water reed to his lips and from the corner of his mouth; I could still see that the curve of his mouth was held up in a smirk. I barely had enough time to open my mouth to ask what the bloody hell was happening, before something sharp pierced my lip. I tasted something metallic in my mouth and that's when I realised that it was blood. I stared at him in shock for a couple of seconds before I reached up and gingerly pulled the offending item out my lip. I looked intently at it and tried to make out what it was while it was covered in my blood, but all I could focus on was the crimson liquid dropping off it. I didn't even have enough time to get my thoughts in order and back away from him before I was shot four more times; on my hand, twice on my shoulder and once on my neck. I felt dizzy and just dropped, but I felt the same hands that caught me during Quidditch stop me from hitting the ground again. My eyes were closed and for the most part my body was unresponsive, but I wasn't unconscious. I could hear Draco's shuffling as I felt him carry me to the sofa and put me down on it, but I couldn't move. Not my arms, not my legs, not my head, fingers or mouth. I was panicking in the inside but to everyone else I was more or less dead.  
"Hermione," I heard him purr close to my ear. I wanted to wiggle away from the closeness and his warm breath that was tickling my skin, but I couldn't. "You're not friends with any of the Gryffindors, are you? Especially Potter and Weasley, you're more like enemies with them, right?" _ 'What a stupid question. Of course I am friends with the Gryffindors! And how could he even begin to think that I was enemies with my best friend and boyfriend?!' _I thought. It was as if _he _didn't know _me_. What was he doing?! As his question was left hanging in the air, my brain started to respond and my mouth moved, but the wrong word came out.

"No." I heard myself whisper.

"That's because we're best friends, aren't we? Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, the Silver Duo, isn't that right? Of course, we're Heads as well, as the two most intelligent of our year. You got that Hermione? You _remember _that Hermione?" He purred my name again and the butterflies in my stomach flapped a little bit harder. I willed my mouth not to move when I felt my brain begin to respond to his question.

_ 'No!' _I wanted to yell._ 'We're not friends! I am part of the Golden Trio not this absurd 'Silver Trio'! None of what you're saying is true!' _ But my mouth opened involuntarily again and whispered, "Yes."

"Good. Now, I need to go get...my books from my room. I'll be back in about 5 minutes to walk you to Charms. You'll need to wake up soon." Five minutes to just go in his room and get books? Why did he need so long? Something wasn't- I didn't have time to finish the thought before Malfoy's voice rang through my ears again. "Oh, and don't tell Longbottom you've stolen his wand."

Then all went black.

* * *

Hermione awoke to a large bang. She shot straight up from the sofa without so much of a recollection of what just happened-she didn't even have a fraction of a headache. Draco emerged from his room only seconds later and it didn't take long to piece together-from Draco's angry face-that it was from his room that the loud noise emanated from. His eyes looked towards Hermione on the sofa and immediately his face softened somewhat. "You OK?" She asked, standing up from the sofa and walking towards him.

"Ah, I see you're awake." He said distantly, but at the pressing look Hermione was giving him, he continued. "I just don't..._feel_ like myself today." He replied as he swung his bag strap over his shoulder.

"Well of course you don't." Hermione stated in her matter-of-fact tone.

Draco raised a pale eyebrow inquisitively, "Humour me. Why is it obvious that I don't feel like myself?"

"_Because_ someone has messed with you." He was just about to open his mouth for her to explain further, when in one quick movement, she transfigured a sofa cushion into a mirror and held in front of Draco's face. His jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out of his head. _'My hair! My beautiful, beautiful blonde hair! What have she done to you!' _He dramatically thought as he cautiously reached a hand up to touch his raven coloured hair. _'And my eyes! My grey eyes!' _He made a horrified gasp as he looked deep into his eyes that were completely foreign to him. His stormy eyes that he knew so well had been turned into a dark blue; but apart from his hair and eyes, nothing else had been changed or altered. "And look-you're even wearing Hufflepuff robes. That's not right. That's not right at all." She tutted, crossing her arms.

"Change it for me?" He asked hesitantly. If she knew how to change it, which of course she did as she was the one that found the spells in the first place, he was sure that she'd do it as his knew..._'friend.' _Also, he knew that she would be fine to do it, as she had awoken from the unresponsive state caused by the foxglove, which meant that she wasn't dead and that meant that it had worked. Now that she definitely wasn't dead, all he had to do was keep it a secret from the Professors otherwise, he'd be on a one-way trip to Azkaban.

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and pointed her wand at his hair. _"Finite Incatatem."_ She whispered. His hair started to change from black to blond, starting at the back of his head and flowing forward in waves. Once his hair was finished, she looked at him thoughtfully and tapped her wand against her chin where blue sparks shot out the end of it. "You know, that shade of blue with your kind of blonde, does not go well together at all." She pointed her wand at each of his eyes and muttered the same counter-charm, then stood back to admire her handiwork. "Much better. Now about your robes-Oh! Look at the time! We're going to be late! I'll see you in Defence-I have to get to Charms! Bye!" She called to him, grabbed her back and sped out of the common room.

"Bye." Draco said as the door shut behind her. For about the third time that day, Draco congratulated himself on his good work. Clearly, this was working, but Draco was wondering just how far he could push her in the sake of fake friendship.

* * *

Hermione sat by herself in Charms as she wasn't friends with anyone in Gryffindor, even though that was her house, and she wasn't too sure about whether she was friends with the Ravenclaws or not. However, she didn't mind, she wasn't particularly into working with anyone.

"Um, Professor?" Neville said tentatively as he raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr Longbottom?" Flitwick asked as he turned away from the blackboard to face the class.

"I-I...I don't have my wand. I had it during Transfiguration." He explained.

"Well I don't know where it is. You'll just have to copy from the textbook and report back here for detention tonight. I'm sorry Mr Longbottom but this is what you get for losing your wand."

"W-What if I use a summoning charm?" Neville asked hopefully.

"It doesn't work on wands. Detention-that is my final word." He said firmly.

Hermione, smiling impishly, reached her hand into her left robe pocket and touched Neville's wand that was hidden in the depths of it. She relished the feel of electricity that came from it, but quickly stopped and removed her hand from her pocket as Flitwicks eyes scanned over everyone in the room. After that, Hermione felt that the the class passed slowly as she had quickly mastered all the spells and was left with nothing to do. As soon as Flitwick dismissed them, Hermione raced from the Charms classroom, straight over to the DADA classroom and waited patiently for Draco to arrive. It didn't take long, but he seemed in an even worse mood than before. Stomping over to her, Draco stopped only a few feet away from her and grumpily demanded that she change his robes back before they entered their class together with the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. "Done." She said grinning happily. "That's three things I've done for you now. You owe me something."

"Owe you? Owe you what?" He asked confused. Draco only had Blaise as a true friend (obviously not counting Hermione as that was fake), but he would never tell anyone that, and all his life as having Blaise as a friend, they had never told the other that they were owed something. Of course, they always owed each other something as they were always persuaded into doing something for each other, but only if they benefited from it; but they never specified what they were owed.

"Anything." She stated, looking at him curiously. "Anything at all."

"How about, after this class, we go on a little Prank spree. My treat." He added as an afterthought, not really sure what he could do for her in return. This was an opportunity, however, should she accept, for Draco to see how well Hermione trusted him as a friend and how well the foxglove actually worked. Again, he was sure she would agree and _'Maybe-just maybe just to scorn her even more,' _Draco thought slyly. _'I could just set her up to get in trouble with the Professors. And who knows? It could be fun.'_

"What about class?" She asked worriedly. Even in this new state of reality, Hermione was still somewhat serious about her classes and grades.

"They won't mind-I'm sure they won't even notice we're gone. Anyway, it'll give the others to catch up to our level." At that, Hermione did a small smile that gave her a childlike appearance, but she still was slightly unsure. "Come on 'Mione, don't you trust me?"

"Hmm...I'll have to get back to you on that, you seem to have a great knack of getting me in trouble." She looked away dramatically from his face and off to the side.

"_Seriously_?" He asked. "Brightest Witch tricked by _me_?"

"Seriously. You're very persuasive when you want to be." Her eyes flickered back to his smirking face and sighed. "Yes, I do trust you."

"Good. I happen to know that all the other years are having a free period next, we can go wreck some havoc among them." Hermione opened her mouth to say something else, but as she saw the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Smith, walk into the classroom, she opted to close her mouth and follow everyone else in.

"I've got some new spells I want to show you." She whispered, already warming up to his suggestion, as she sat down next to him. Not knowing what to say, Draco just merely nodded his head, but froze when he heard the voices of Harry and Ron as they walked through the door. As Ron and Harry's eyes looked around the room for their best friend, Hermione, they lapsed into a shocked silence when they saw who she was sitting with and talking to. "You should've been in Charms. Longbottom got a detention because his-" Hermione stopped short in her secret when she noticed the two Gryffindor boys standing in front of their desk, looking curiously at her.

"Why Neville get a detention?" Ron asked.

"Not that it concerns you, but his wand has gone missing. His memory isn't the...best. I suspect he's going to have another detention from Professor Smith." She replied airily.

They both looked quite put out by her answer and tone of voice, but even more so because she refused to make even the tiniest bit of eye contact with either of them the entire time they were there. "Malfoy," Harry said sickly sweet, but it gradually transformed into a growl. "I see your back in your _Slytherin _robes and your features are back to normal."

"What's it matter to you Potter? I have friends that help me."

"_Friends_?!" Ron scoffed. "You don't have any-the whole of Slytherin hates you. Come on 'Mione, let's leave him to go mope around by himself." He made to grab her wrist and drag her away, but she slapped his hand away and moved her hand out of reach.

"I'd rather not be dragged about by you, you insolent little," She paused for a moment, looked around him at the curly tail poking out of his backside and looked back up at his face with a sneer. "Pig."

Draco chuckled next to her at her sass and at their astonished faces. "I think you mean Weasel."

"No, I mean pig. See, he even has a little tail and it complements the way he eats perfectly." She said and pointed at the tail, which made Ron turn a horrible shade of red. "And for your information, _I_ happen to be Draco's friend, so you two can bugger off and leave us in peace." She opened her book huffily and glared daggers at them before contently read her book.

Draco smiled mockingly at them and waved them teasingly away. They didn't leave without giving Draco a look that promised that they'd figure out soon what he was up to. "So, where _is _Longbottom's wand?" Draco whispered to her, all the while, keeping his eyes trained on Harry and Ron as they took their seats at the closest desk that they could get to them that wasn't occupied.

"In this pocket." Hermione said patting the pocket closest to him. "There's a concealment charm placed over it-no one will know it's there. Pretty ingenious, don't you think?" Hermione looked at him from under her eyelashes, seeking approval from the most cunning Slytherin of all and of course, she knew how well he could trick people, she was his best friend. Draco chuckled quietly and was about to tell her that he could've done better, when he turned his head from Professor Smith to look at Hermione and the words stuck to the back of his throat. He blinked a few times but he still couldn't say anything, and this only made Hermione more concerned about what was happening to him. She looked far too innocent to Draco, for her to have been such a part in his illegal plan, especially if something went wrong and he ended up accidentally killing her. What would he do then? _'Be rotting away in a cell in Azkaban'_ Draco thought. He shook his head to clear the thought, still looking at her, and her forehead creased in concern.

"You shouldn't do that," He found himself saying, avoiding her eyes. "You'll get frown lines."

"You shouldn't give me a reason to get concerned about you then." She countered.

"Touché." He wasn't worried-far from it. Hermione was still kicking and breathing and Draco wouldn't let anyone discover his secret. _'Surely that old coot Dumbledore would understand.'_ He thought hopefully. "I was just thinking."

"Clearly," Hermione said dryly.

"Someone's sassy today." He muttered under his breath, and then spoke louder. "It's a good idea, but I'm sure we can do better than that during our prank spree."

"Of course we can-just wait until you see these spells of mine. You'll be so impressed." She said smugly, sitting that bit straighter in her chair. They stopped talking after that, but without talking to Hermione as a distraction, Draco became nervous and fidgety. His eyes kept moving around the room, from person-to-person, always lingering on the Gryffindors that he knew Hermione was friends with, the Professor and of course, her personal bodyguards. He was sure that Harry and Ron would do anything to find out what's wrong with her and restore her mind back to what it was. _'They might have their priorities muddled though, and decided to brutally murder me first.' _ He took a long look at her out of the corner of his eye and realised that her lip was still split, but no longer bleeding-the same with her neck and hand. If he was going to protect himself, he was going to need to erase every single piece of evidence; the marks on her skin and he needed to burn the page from the Herbology book.

The cuts had to go first.

They could start their Prank spree in the library.

* * *

"I thought we were going to go 'wreck havoc'? What are we doing here?" Hermione asked curiously, as she skipped from bookshelf-to-bookshelf, running her finger along the titles as Draco read a book on Healing Charms.

"Don't act as if you're miffed about it-we both know you're not." Draco said as he closed the book with an annoyed snap and shoved it back on the shelf. Hermione sniffed indignantly and lent against the wall where Draco was standing.

"Why are you looking at Healing Charms anyway? If you're hurt, just go to Madam Pomfrey."

"It's not for me, it's for you."

"Me?" She asked as she turned over her hands to look at them. "Oh," She said when she spotted the painful piercing on her skin. "How did I not notice that? I don't remember getting it..."

"You, um, fell off the sofa while you were sleeping and cut your lip and hands." Draco supplied. "It was just a silly, little cut; I didn't want to bother with taking you to the hospital to get it repaired. I thought I'd get some practice and do it for you." Draco said  
airily and walked over to her. She stood against the wall with some confidence that must've come from Draco's demeanour, but she still held a hesitant look in her eyes. He cautiously took her hand in his, as if it might burn him-or slap him around the face again-but as if his hesitance had been transferred to her, her shoulders fell forward as she became unsure of him. Draco held her eye contact though, and looked at her with hard eyes that made it hard for her to look away. His thumb brushed over the small piercing in her skin and immediately it re-knitted together and the red tint to her skin vanished. Once the healing was done, Draco dropped her hand and reached forward to brush his thumb over her lip to repair it, but she stepped away and took out her wand. He dropped his hand immediately, refusing to look at her, mentally berating himself for being so stupid and foolish. _'How could you act this way so soon? It's only been a bit over three hours! How could you let yourself act like that? It's not right, her affection isn't even real. It's fake. All fake. What would Father say...?'_

"It's just _episkey_, isn't it? You were just doing it wordlessly and with your fingers instead of your...wand," She whispered the last part and looked dazedly off to the side, before visibly snapping out of it. "_Episkey_, yes?"

"You're the cleverest-you tell me." He sighed, running his hand through his hair in a sign of stress. He saw her take her wand and repair her own lip before looking calculatingly at him. "See something you like?" He couldn't help but ask, as cheesy as it sounded.

"Maybe," She replied cheekily, smirking a Slytherin smirk at him, quickly recovering from her shock of what Draco was just about to do. "But you will soon." Hermione walked forward so that she was heading out of the corridor of bookshelves and towards the middle of the room where students doing homework were sitting. She peered around at everyone before spotting a particularly emotionally weak looking girl and picking her to demonstrate one of the spells that she had read about. "Watch that Ravenclaw fourth year's piece of homework." Hermione told Draco as she turned around to face him, so that her back was to the tables.

"OK..." Draco said hesitantly, not really sure what Hermione was about to do. She lifted her petite hand over her mouth and coughed. The piece of homework caught fire immediately but it didn't look as if it was burning. The fourth year jumped up from her seat in shock and tried to put the fire out using _aguamenti_, but that only made her paper soaked and her writing ruined. Peering around her shoulder to see what happened, Hermione dropped her hand and let out short breath, which put out the flames as quickly as they had started. The young Ravenclaw was in tears over the work that she'd ruined trying to put out the fake fire that Hermione had started. Moodily, she scrunched up the soggy paper and threw it across the room where it hit a second year Hufflepuff at the back of his head.

"What did you do?" Draco asked, his eyes wide.

"Just a little something I learned. Here, you try. Pick someone in the library." Hermione said happily, as she indicated everyone in front of them as if they were a table of desserts.

"Err..." Draco said, taking in everyone. "How 'bout that third year over there. The Slytherin." Hermione spotted the student Draco was talking about as she followed where his finger was pointing; the young boy was reading a particularly heavy tome, leaning against a tall bookshelf laden with books.

"You can tell a lot about someone by their choices." She informed him. "Now, turn around so no one can see you." She grabbed his shoulders and twisted them around so that he had his back to the tables, as she had. "Don't get annoyed if you can't get this right the first time, it's very advanced magic," She joked. "Put your hand over your mouth, and, either imagine the bookshelf falling backwards and him falling on top of it because he lost his balance, getting crushed by the bookshelf, or having the tome smack him in the face and break his nose. Your choice. You got one?" Draco nodded, a large grin on his face. "Now sneeze."

"Sneeze?" He asked incredulously, his hand dropping and eyes snapping away from the Slytherin to Hermione's face.

"Yes-sneeze. Do it!" She giggled lightly.

"You didn't-"

"_I know_ _I didn't sneeze._ Sneezing has a different effect. Oh, come on Draco, just do it."

"Fine." He looked completely doubtful that something was going to happen, but looked at Hermione again- a rather bad habit that he was developing- and before he sneezed, quickly changed the outcome that he wanted to happen. He originally intended for the bookshelf to fall on top of the boy, but he knew that Hermione wouldn't be happy with his decision. He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity again and gave a half-hearted sneeze. Immediately the bookshelf toppled over backwards, making the Slytherin fall on top of it on the floor and getting odd corners of books poking him in different parts of his body. The large bookshelf falling to the ground made it shudder, and all the others around it shuddered and followed it to the ground; soon everyone was running away from the books and shelves that threatened to hit them, except from Hermione and Draco, whose bookcases were standing statue still. Hermione gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth, then took one look at Draco's astonished face and burst out laughing; Draco soon followed as he heard and saw Hermione in hysterics over what happened. "Oh shit, we've got to go! Madam Pince is coming!" Draco urged, jumping over shelves and books as he made his way to the door without Hermione.

"Hang on!" She called, and then said quietly to herself, "There's something I need to do." With another cough, Hermione set every single book about Quidditch in the library alight, and there was about five on every two shelves. Taking in her handiwork, Hermione smiled to herself and skipped out of the library. _'Hopefully he'll find this prank better than just 'good'.'_ Hermione thought to herself.

"What were you doing?" He asked, halfway down the corridor and still walking speedily. She had to run quite fast to catch up with him, and had to continue to take quick steps as he easily glided down the corridor with his long legs.

"Just thought I'd let them know how much I hate Quidditch." She shrugged casually, but the devilish grin on her face said that she found it a lot more fun than something 'casual'. He gave her a pointed look and a smirk graced her lips as she delved into a bit more detail. "Set the books on fire. Every single book about Quidditch." Draco guffawed loudly, then, an idea coming to mind, he grabbed her wrist and whisked her down the corridors and into the Dungeons. "What are you doing? If the other Slytherins see that I'm here, they'll go mad. I'm just a mud-" Draco quickly shushed her.

"Don't call yourself that. _Ever_. You understand me Hermione?" She just nodded as if he had told her a thousand times. "Besides, you're with me, are you not?" He winked good-naturedly at her.

"And what's that supposed to mean? Am I not capable of protecting myself?" She asked, sounding quite offended underneath her laugh.

"Remember I told you that everyone else had a free period?" Draco asked, quickly changing the subject. Hermione nodded, easily remembering the conversation that happened only hours ago. "Well I lied. Some of the second years are still having lessons-like potions for instance. This means it's my turn to show you something," By the instructions on the board, he easily recognised what potion they were brewing. Looking around, he noticed a puff of green smoke coming from one of the Hufflepuffs cauldrons. He put his hand over his mouth, as Hermione showed him, and sneezed. The boy's cauldron tipped all its contents over him and it made him sprout angry red boils all over all the skin that was uncovered and completely dissolved all the fabric on his shoes. He was barefoot in a matter of seconds with boils covering every square inch of his feet. Snape wasn't too bothered by the boy's condition and, with a flick of his wand, cleared spilt potion from the desk and sent the boy to the hospital wing. Before the boy exited the classroom and saw them though, they ran down the corridor and hid behind a corner.

"That's my spell so it doesn't count." She lectured as they walked back to outside the door, once they were sure that the boy was gone. "If you can't think of a new one, then just use one that you do know. For instance," Hermione and flicked her wand at a Gryffindor's potion, making it heat up more than it should've. The potion started to bubble unnoticeably at first, but soon got more ferocious as it kept getting hotter and spat its contents at the girls face, covering it in the same angry red boils as the boy had been. Soon, she had enough sense to step far away from the potion and stop the fire underneath the cauldron. She was paid more attention by Snape, as he was starting to get curious as to why two of his top students' potions were going wrong; but she was also sent to the hospital wing without more than a second glance. Hermione peeked her head around the corner to see what else they could do and how close the girl was to the door, but quickly pulled her head back as Snape looked at the direction of the door at the same time.

"What is it?"

"I think Snape saw me. Check," Hermione said as they both stood up in case a quick getaway was in order. Draco looked around the corner stealthier than Hermione had, and saying a 'yes' so quickly that it took a while for Hermione to understand what he said; he took off down the corridor again, without waiting for her.

Once she figured out what he said, she spent no time in hurrying down the corridor after him and disappearing around the corner as she heard Snape call out questioningly, "Miss Granger?"

* * *

"Are you ready for this?" Draco asked cockily from their hidden alcove by the main staircase. They'd been there for a while now, firing a range of spells at unsuspecting students as they came down the stairs. They came straight there after they'd been caught by Filch heading to the kitchens; they then ran from him and Mrs Norris. Of course, they needed to get rid of the cat otherwise the Squib would've found them, so Hermione shot a _stupefy _at it before they turned a corner, ran up a couple of stairs and found the alcove that they were in now.

"Go ahead." Hermione said. "Take your pick." He picked himself up, trying to look impressive, and shot a spell that hit the middle step on the tall staircase. The step that was hit, and the one to the left and right of it, suddenly vanished. Neither of them were so heartless to make it so that the steps at the very top of the staircase vanished, so anyone that fell had a good chance of dying, but they still wanted a funny resulted, so the steps that were vanished were a good 30ft from the floor. About three students, from three different Houses and years were unfortunate enough to step on the step as it vanished and fell to the ground in a heap. There was a distinct slap of skin and bodies hitting the cold, hard ground, but no noticeable snap of bones, which was reasonably good. "Good one." She praised as she watched everyone gather around the missing stares wondering what to do. A couple of bulky sixth year Slytherins were whispering conspiratorially to each other with cruel looks on their faces, as they stared down at a first year Ravenclaw who was standing in front of them. Suddenly, the middle Slytherin pushed the young boy down the gape. "That's not nice." Hermione tutted and pointed her wand at him. With a simple flick, the boy was transformed into a Great Dane, squishing the tangle of bodies groaning on the ground even more. "Oh. That's not right. I wonder what went wrong..."

"What do you mean?" Draco said laughing as the dog bounded down the corridor, away from about five students who were running after him.

"He was _meant _to turn into an eagle, or a cat at the very least."

"Why a cat?"

"Because they are always meant to land on their feet. At least he wouldn't have broken anything then, and the others wouldn't have had something so large land on them."

"Good point." He shrugged. "So, does that count as your turn or...?"

"That doesn't count! It was a mistake; all I wanted to do was help."

"Well then,_ 'take your pick._'" He said imitating Hermione.  
"I will." She said shortly and did a little, amusing dance as she waved her wand. "Whoops!" She said sarcastically as a blue beam of light hit a banister on the staircase, where the three steps were still missing, and they immediately transformed into an array of exotic looking snakes. They fell at people's feet on the steps and slithered after them, nipping at their shoes, as they screamed and ran back up or down the stairs, depending on where they were. Out of the corner her eye, she caught the look on Draco's face and said, "Oh, don't worry. They bite and that's about it. You'll find no rattlesnakes or boa constrictors there."

"That puts me at ease." He said as he kicked away a snake that had dropped into their alcove and then _'evanesco-ed'_ it. "A very Slytherin themed idea, don't you think?"

"Something wrong with it?"

"Nothing at all. Purely because it's Slytherin, I'm going to allow you to win this round." He said arrogantly as he twirled his wand in his hand.

"So what's that then? My," She ticked off the number of wins she had on her fingers. "Eighth win out of our twelve rounds." She replied snidely.

"Whatever," He muttered unhappily. "Guess we should put everything back for another round then." He waved his wand lazily, the snakes melted away, and the banisters returned along with the three missing steps. The students hesitantly prodded the steps with their feet before deciding that they weren't going to disappear again, and continued to move up and down the stairs. Some were still slightly shaken by the event and stood stock still, blocking parts of the staircase. "Shall I go first or you?"

"Um, I'll go first." She said unsure. "Now what spell shall I use?" As soon as the words escaped her lips, a spell quickly came to her head, and she became visibly excited. "Oh, oh! Watch this!" Hermione giggled gleefully and whispered a curse under hear breath so low that Draco didn't hear. She pointed her wand at a first years shoes as he was about to walk down the steps. Suddenly his shoelaces tied together and he tumbled down the steps, knocking all the other years over who also tumbled down the steps, taking out everyone in their way until they were in a twisted heap at the bottom. From the corner of his eye, Draco could see Hermione looking up at him for praise or approval, grinning slyly at her handiwork. He started laughing loudly, quickly forgetting his mood because he was obviously losing at their game.  
"You've got to teach me that!" Draco breathed in amazement, 0nce he stopped laughing long enough to speak. Hermione giggled even more but she suddenly stopped when she saw Professor McGonagall heading over to the bottom of the steps to see what the commotion was about. "Shit." He cursed under his breath, as they stood frozen to the spot.  
"What happened here?!" She asked loudly over the noise of the groaning students. "Some dog was spotted running around the grounds and I know that no one in this castle is an Animagus! Moreover, there have been complaints of some unseen person throwing spells around here and injuring students, and it is definitely not Peeves! So, who was it? How did all this?" She gestured madly at the heap of students that were starting to get up from under the middle of the staircase and the new pile of them at the bottom of the steps. Draco tried to keep a blank face but his mouth was trying to smile widely. Hermione hadn't been caught yet, even though Draco was abandoning her after every prank in the hopes that she was caught, but since there was no escape this time, maybe she would be. He was only slightly guilty at the thought, but it didn't stop him from preparing to blame it on her. He found the situation too funny though, and soon he could no longer contain himself; he let it and let out a bark of laughter that revealed their hidden location.  
"Hermione did it!" Draco said laughing childishly and darted from their alcove, running down the corridor without waiting for his 'friend'. Hermione started laughing even louder, not moving from her hiding spot before playfully yelling "snitch!" And sped down the corridor after him.  
"Be a Seeker and catch me then!" He didn't know what possessed him to say the cheeky little phrase, but he did it anyway and continued to run, laughing. He dodged students who had frozen on the spot, looking over his shoulder to see how far behind Hermione was (she was about 15 metres behind him, because he was able to cover more distance with his longer legs), while some others pressed themselves up against the wall, so not to be knocked over. The corridor rang with their laughter as all the students fell into silence over the strange sight and banter.  
"Where are you going?! Detention Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy! Get back here!" McGonagall shrilled after them.  
"Sorry Prof but I'm a bit busy at the moment!" Hermione called back. McGonagall made an undignified sound of annoyance at the Golden Girl's rude and unusual attitude and, picking up the ends of her robes, started to hurry after them.  
"She's after us!" Hermione squealed as she caught up with Draco and jumped on his back. He had frozen in the middle of the corridor because of a small crowd of Gryffindors that were gathered in front of him, with a certain ginger and a spectacled boy at the front, pointing their wands at his face. Hermione recognised almost all of them, after all, they were in her House, but she didn't really know them personally-they were enemies. They appeared to have spoken to each other before Hermione had gotten there, due to the defensive stances, snarls on their faces and the general animosity in the air. But more importantly, they were in their way! There wasn't any time for this!  
"I don't know what you're talking about." Draco said aloofly, replying to Ron's earlier question of what he had done to her, as he held her legs securely so that she wouldn't slide off. Hermione was annoyed at the pointless standstill, and looking behind her, McGonagall was almost upon them, so they needed to get moving.  
"Look, right now we are in no position to have a pointless chat with you. Oh, thanks by the way," She said as she quickly snatched the wands off the boys. "We'll be needing these. Go!" Draco laughed, bidding them a mocking farewell, as they tried to get their wands back from Hermione as she was holding them temptingly far above their heads. She kicked him gently in the sides, like what you'd do with a horse, and looking behind them one more time to see McGonagall only about 7 metres away from them, Draco ran.

"'Scuse us!" Draco said as he pushed past all the Gryffindors and other students blocking his way. Even with the added weight of Hermione, Draco still ran reasonably fast because she was, in his eyes, very light. The Gryffindors still wanted answers to her strange behaviour, however, and chased after them as well, getting closer to them than the old Professor-but that was to be expected. Hermione's musical laughter continued to ring down the halls, even through the murmurs of surprise and wonder that were coming from students mouths, as she conjured up a swarm of loose papers to slow them down. They skidded around a corner and Draco almost lost his balance because of the combined weight, but he soon righted himself and they continued running, but soon, they came to the end of the corridor and were faced with nothing more than a wall and another staircase.

"We can't go up, it'll be too obvious." Hermione stated as Draco put her down.

"Then where do you suppose we _go_?" Draco asked. "There is nowhere else, unless you want to be potentially expelled."

"I don't know! But we can't go upstairs-that's the first place they'll go."

"Obviously! There is no other place they can try! There'll be more places upstairs anyway." He stressed.

"Well, how about-"

"Too late, they're here. Stay if you want, but I'm going up." He took out his wand, shot a spell to make a line of tall flames reach lengthways, from wall-to-wall, and ran up the stairs. He just reached halfway when he heard Hermione make an undignified noise and nosily stomped up the steps after him, muttering about how she didn't like that he was right. In her anger, Hermione wasn't looking where she was stepping and, close to the top of the first staircase, she tripped. Draco heard her shriek and the thud as she fell on the hard steps, the corners poking uncomfortably into her. He stopped halfway up the other staircase and looked round to see her lying still on the stairs, groaning being the only sound coming from her. His eyes moved away from her body and to the large crowd of people that had managed to get through the fire and were coming quickly towards the staircase where she was lying. He had to make a decision in a matter of seconds otherwise, whatever he did, would be no use. _'Move Draco! You wanted to get her in trouble to scorn her, so let exactly that happen! You've delayed them for long enough.' _ A side of Draco's mind argued.

_'Help her! If they get her, they'll find out what's wrong and you'll be on your way to Azkaban sooner than you can say Quidditch! After all, she'll keep blabbing on about how she's your best friend, enemies with her House and all the other bits of rubbish you told her! And she still has the cut on her neck and shoulders-they'll find out what you've done to her soon enough.' _Another part, the more into self-preservation side, countered.

_'Draco, have a heart. Look at her; she's unconscious on the stairs, a result of being in another one of your pranks. Move her and then hide her away until the potion wears off. Leave her out of your childish revenge and when she hates your very being, don't pity yourself because it's your fault.' _The more compassionate side of him said, although, that part of his brain wasn't very big.

_'Draco! No!'_

_'Draco, yes! You have to!'_

_'Draco, save her!'_

"Do something." He whispered urgently to himself, hoping that his body would make the right choice. When he didn't do something, he made a sound of frustration. The others were reaching the bottom of the steps now, and already mentally regretting the decision he was about to make, he ran down and hurriedly scooped her up in his arms. Careful now not to trip himself, Draco ran back up the rest of the first staircase, the angry mob hot on his trail, and up the other before running into another corridor. He skidded around another corner and-

"Mr Malfoy."


	13. And From Here On, It Goes Downhill

**A/N-Sorry about this chapter taking so long. It was my first week back at school, and I was sort of stuck about what to write for this chapter. So, if it's bad, that is the reason. Yeah, also my friend told me to 'put some cliché shit in there and fast' when I asked her for help- so, yeah, not much help there. Also, I was actually going to write it like this- like none of it was meant to happen- it just kinda did. Quite dramatic. And short. This chapter is short compared to most of them.**

**I hope you like it?**

* * *

"Mr Malfoy."

"P-Professor," He stuttered out of shock. "Professor Dumbledore." His eyes snapped to the unconscious body in his arms and quickly back up to meet the twinkling blue eyes of the Headmaster. "I can explain, see-" He said in a rush, but froze when he heard the exact voices he was trying to escape, near him.

"Malfoy if you don't tell us what you did, we're going to hex your-" A chorus of male voices yelled as they rounded the corner but skidded to a stop when they saw the Headmaster. The Headmaster didn't say anything, just stood there watching the herd of Gryffindors as they mumbled, muttered, spat and shouted out half-formed sentences trying to explain just what was going on. After about five minutes, Professor McGonagall came around the corner looking far from distressed. Most of her hair had come out of her neat bun and she was huffing as she leant against the wall to regain her breath.

"Mr Malfoy, and Miss Granger, what the both of you were doing at the staircases will not-" McGonagall started to berate the two students between pants; but she was unaware of the current unconscious state of Hermione.

"Minerva," Dumbledore interrupted her kindly. McGonagall all at once stopped her wheezing and looked up in shock at the Headmaster, only just noticing that he was standing there.

"Headmaster," McGonagall said, as she stood up straight, and started to right her ruined bun. "These-these- Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy were," She started to mutter incoherently, her voice joining the ones of the Gryffindors in front of her, as she tried to explain the full situation to him, but all noise stopped when he slowly raised his right hand.

"I'm sure that Mr Malfoy here, will be more than able to explain to me the unusual nature of this scene, as he was about to do only moments ago. However, first, I think that it might be best if we get Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing." Dumbledore said. At that moment, every eye fell upon the unconscious body of Hermione Granger that was currently lying in the arms of Draco Malfoy. Understandably, the gang of Gryffindors looked offended- Ron and Harry even more so, as they stepped forward away from the group, towards Draco who was standing frozen, as he felt all the glares on him.

"As her _true friends_, and not someone who is likely to manipulate her, I think _we'll_ be taking Hermione," Ron said, trying his best to seem as intimidating as he could be, in front of someone who was a good few inches taller than he was.

"I don't know whether your memory spans back to a few hours ago _Weasley_, but I distinctly remember her calling you an 'insolent little pig.' That doesn't sound like a true friend, does it now?" Draco said coldly, gaining back some of his proud posture. McGonagall was about to interrupt, to stop their argument before it turned into a violent fight, but just as she was about to open her mouth, Professor Dumbledore stopped her. He had a feeling that this argument would solve itself.

"_I happen _to be her _boyfriend_. Apart from being Co-Head, what are _you _to _her_?" Ron replied, suddenly venomous. Draco suddenly became angry, for a reason unknown to him (or for a reason that he'd rather not take notice of), unconsciously pulled Hermione closer to him (which Dumbledore only really noticed) and gritted his teeth. "But fine, maybe when she was under whatever curse you hit her with she said that insult. You can hold onto that if you want. She's still got Harry though, and Harry should take her."

"Granger told you _both _to 'bugger off,' if I remember correctly," Draco suddenly blurted out, no longer able to think about the words spilling out his mouth. "a_nd she said that she was my friend! _Who do you think changed me back? The only person that had knowledge on the spell, of course! Besides, why would she want to be friends with you two-"

Not even letting Draco finish, Ron angrily yanked his wand out of his robe pocket. "_Rennervate_!" Ron spat. Hermione's eyes slowly started to flutter open, and for the second time that day, Draco found that all his thoughts went blank. This girl- the girl he thought that he could never have- was lying in his arms, looking even more beautiful than she usually did. Maybe it was because it was his face that was the first thing she saw when she woke up; maybe it was just for the simple fact that she was in his arms. Whatever the reason was, he wasn't expecting his heart to thump just that bit faster when she finally recognised whom he was and gave a lazy, lopsided smile. It was only for a second though, because next, her face contorted into pain and Draco found himself getting worried.

"Draco," She whispered, her voice sounding muffled in the tense atmosphere. "what happened?"

Hermione groaned loudly, and that's when Ron's protective instincts took over, although they weren't helpful in her case. "Put her down," Ron growled. Draco was about to protest; about how she only just woke up from knocking her head on the stairs and blacking out, so putting her down wouldn't be the brightest of ideas, but he thought better of sounding like he _cared_ about her, shut his mouth and set her down on her feet, never taking his eyes off of Ron.

"You're just a clumsy girl, is all," Draco muttered, trying to seem nonchalant, as he continued to stare down Ron. "You tripped on the stairs and knocked yourself out." Hermione seemed seriously confused about Draco's sudden coldness- from what she remembered, he was _never _like that to her- or, perhaps it was because she suddenly became overcome with dizziness and her knees buckled underneath her. Throwing caution to the wind, Draco quickly forgot his icy attitude toward her and grabbed her either side of her waist, helping her to stand. Coughing loudly, Harry directed Draco's attention back to his audience, who were watching him intently. Quickly, he let his hands drop and when she stumbled again, going against his sympathetic judgement, he only gripped her tightly by the elbow. "Your friends are going to take you to the Hospital Wing," He said, gesturing to Harry and Ron, who were still slightly distanced from the rest of the Gryffindor's. "I have to go explain my...unreasonable behaviour to the Headmaster."

"Unreasonable," Ron scoffed. "Evil, more like."

"Draco...?" Hermione croaked, turning her head to face him as Harry and Ron took their own steadying grip on her arms, and Draco dropped his arm, turning towards the Headmaster. "These-they aren't-"

"Yes they are Granger. I lied to you about everything," He said, keeping any emotion from entering his voice, but Hermione could see a small flicker of hurt in his grey orbs. "Consider yourself pranked. Next time you have a problem with me, prank me on your own, not with the help of everybody else." He turned back towards the Headmaster, and still with his monotone voice he said, "Lead the way to your office Professor." Dumbledore looked kindly with knowing eyes at Draco, and then to Hermione who had glistening eyes, and walked down the corridor with Draco and McGonagall trailing after him. The whole time he was following, Draco tried to keep his eyes purposely on the floor, but try as he might, he couldn't keep the Gryffindor voices from entering his ears.

"You OK 'Mione?" Harry asked. Hermione didn't answer; instead, she kept watching Draco leave the corridor at a slow, consistent pace. "You know, Malfoy isn't lying Hermione. Whatever he did to you was a prank, merely revenge. He's not a fri-"

"Yes, he _is_. What he really is lying about is everything he just said _now_. _Draco _is my friend-my _best friend- _not you two. I don't like either of you." She protested weakly, willing her tears away.

"_We are _your friends Hermione. We became friends in First Year, don't you remember? After we saved you from that troll in the Girls Bathroom." Ron said, looking her right in the eye. Broken fragments of memories assaulted her mind, causing her to stumble again. She took no notice of the resurfacing thoughts, promptly squashing them as they appeared, making her headache much worse. Black started to cloud the edges of her vision as she shook her head, denying anything that Ron said to her. "He's anything but your friend Hermione, he's our enemy. _He always _called you a _Mudblood_; you slapped him Third Year because of it. You must remember _something! _Harry help me out here!" Tears started to stream out of Hermione's eyes from the pain, and she could only make out few shapes now.

Draco was now out of hearing range, being at almost the end of the corridor, so he didn't know that her two best friends were unintentionally hurting her because no one knew what he did to her. However, his unawareness didn't last long as suddenly a blood-curdling scream sounded throughout the halls, amplified by the emptiness of the floor. Memories of Hermione's torture at Malfoy Manor quickly swam to the front of his mind, and spinning around, he saw Hermione curled into the foetal position on the floor, screaming into her stomach. All the Gryffindors had surged forward to try calm their Princess- most seemed dumbstruck and weren't doing much- but others, such as Harry and Ron were crouched down next to her, frantically trying to find out what was wrong with her. "Hermione," he whispered and rushed towards her, as fast as he could, while trying not to trip over his own feet. McGonagall and Dumbledore had turned around as well, and they rushed back towards the Golden Girl as fast as they were able to go, whilst McGonagall was constantly asking what was wrong with her, as if she was the only one who wanted to know.

"Stay away from her Malfoy!" Harry shouted so angrily, that given any other time, Draco was sure that he would've stopped or hesitated, but today he continued moving towards her.

"What did you do?" Ron shouted, jumping up from Hermione's side and throwing Draco against the wall, his wand (that he and Harry had obviously taken out of Hermione's possession) pressed into his throat and his face red in distress. "What did you do, you pathetic, cowardly Ferret." After each pause, Ron slammed him back into the wall, knocking every bit of breath out of him. "What did you do to my girlfriend? I can't believe you! Out of all the evil shit you've done, this has got to be the worse! I'm going to kill you! I'll kill you Malfoy." He moved his wand so that it pressed even more into his neck, so it started to choke him.

"Kill me, and she might end up with the same fate as me." He choked out, his voice quiet over her screaming.

"Is that a threat?" Ron growled.

"There's no point in threatening her. It is merely just a fact." The last of his patience had worn out when Draco did a pathetic attempt at a smirk, while he was practically turning purple, and Ron punched him hard across his jaw, making him fall to the ground. Roughly yanking him back up again, Ron slammed him back into the wall. "I don't know what you were doing, but I have an idea and I know how to help Granger."

"We weren't doing _anything _to her! Just tell us what you did-that's all we need from you."

"No. You're lying-you were trying to get her to remember, weren't you?" Draco asked fiercely as he finally figured out the cause of her pain.

"Of course we were! I don't know what you did Malfoy, but thought that she was best friends with _you_, and hated _us!" _Ron spat. "What did you do to her?"

"I will_ never _tell you what I did to her, but if you let me go, I can help. Trust me this once. It's either you keep it all, or you lose it all." Ron didn't answer, only hesitated once, but kept his hard glare on Draco, missing the sincerity in his eyes.

"Ron!" Harry shouted over her screams. "Let him- he said he can help! What choice do we have?" Seeing how it was a lost cause, and the great truth in Harry's words, Ron threw Draco to the floor by Hermione, who was now thrashing about. Not liking Hermione's pain anymore than they were- not that he'd ever let them know- Draco scrambled over so that he was closer to her. "So what do we have to do Malfoy?" Draco didn't answer for a moment, not because he couldn't hear him-because Hermione's screams were getting slightly quieter as she screamed herself hoarse-but because he didn't exactly know what to do at that moment. He only knew what to do once she was in the Hospital.

"Get her to Madam Pomfrey. We need to get her to the Hospital Wing or St Mungo's- wait, no, not St Mungos. She can't go there." Draco rambled as he tried to catch her flailing arms, before she injured herself, whilst Harry and Ron did the same, but with her legs. Hermione couldn't go to St Mungos. She just couldn't. If she went there, they'd need to know, or they would work out what exactly had happened to her and then there wouldn't be the tiniest chance that he'd be excused by any of the Ministry workers. It could be worse for her to stay at school, but Draco was selfish, scared and guilty. He didn't know how to convince them that she needed to stay here when she so clearly needed to be elsewhere, but he had to try.

"What? _We can't take her to St Mungos? _Have you gone mad? She clearly needs the help-this won't be solved by Madam Pomfrey-no matter how good she is."

"I'm sure Mr Malfoy's work with Potions is exemplary and he'll be as good as any Healer at Mungo's. As par to his request, Miss Granger stays here; and, as probably the only person who knows what to do at this moment, she'll be under his care." Dumbledore said seriously, staring pointedly at every disbelieving face. "I think that'll be punishment enough, do you agree Mr Malfoy?"

"Yes Headmaster." Draco said through gritted teeth. He knew that he had to fix what he had started, and if she died now, then the guilt would probably be so all consuming that he would follow her to the grave not long after. He then diverted his gaze to Ron who was next to Harry, holding her legs down as she still struggled against her restraints, and said, "I need to _stupefy_ her. Here you- Weasley- take her arms."

"Why don't I just _stupefy_ her? I don't trust you to-"

"Because _I'm _in charge of her, and _I _am telling you to take her arms. So do it." Draco said threateningly. Ron glared at him, but he grudgingly complied, as Harry moved to sit on her legs. Taking out his wand, Draco cast the spell and immediately she fell silent and still. Breathing in heavily, Draco thought about what to do next. He was about to pick Hermione up himself, but stopped and mentally scolded himself when he saw her already in her _real friend_ and _boyfriend's _arms. Not sparing any more gazes on the pretty girl in someone else's arms that she originally didn't wake up in, Draco walked quickly in front of him and down the hall towards the Hospital Wing; with every Gryffindor and the two Professors following him. Arriving at the Hospital, Draco ordered- much to Ron's displeasure-where to put Hermione, and then for them all to leave (except of course the Professors), so that he could help her confidentially. They all refused greatly to leave their Princess's side, but they eventually realised that there was no point in arguing when Dumbledore, once again, stepped in and told them to comply to 'Mr Malfoy's wishes'. Once all the Gryffindors had left, and McGonagall had gone to inform Madam Pomfrey, Draco turned to Dumbledore and decided that he might as well get some of the over-bearing guilt off his chest. "Headmaster, it's true. I-I did this to her. Not intentionally though- I didn't know that the Gryffindors were going to go and muck it up and hurt her because they were trying to get her memories back! _'Digitalis mentem oboediebant'." _He said frantically, losing that epic Malfoy composure he always had. "_Digitalis mentem oboediebant'-_ Foxglove Mind Control-that's what I used. It's Dark Magic Professor, and I knew that and I know that Azkaban-"

"Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore said, looking him steely in the eye. "I know this was meant to be a prank and it was not meant to harm her, like another one of your ideas did at Quidditch practice, but I hope you understand that Dark Magic has a tendency to go wrong. However, I also know that you regret it and you'll help her, and because of that, there is no cell in Azkaban with your name on it. I think it'd be best if we mention this to know one, and we even make sure that Miss Granger knows nothing of it, when she awakes." He added as he saw McGonagall returning with an equally frantic Medi-Witch in tow. Draco just nodded solemnly. He knew that it needed to be done, and he was lucky to be spared. "I'm sorry to disturb you Poppy, and to bring you out here when you are not needed, but you only need to know that Miss Granger is occupying one of the beds, but she is to be cared for by only Mr Malfoy. No interference is needed- I have full trust in him." Madam Pomfrey gave Draco a sceptical look, and pleading eyes to Dumbledore, but he didn't change his answer. She huffed once, and left to go back to her office, after giving Draco a spare pair of keys to the Hospital in case he needed to get in there when it was locked. Dumbledore gave him one last serious look, and then turned away with McGonagall who looked quite unhappy that no _real _punishment was given.

He'd never tell anyone, but he always fancied becoming a Healer at St Mungos one day. It was just the thought of giving something back to make up for all the darkness that the Malfoy name was always associated with. He wanted to make it a respectable name one day. One that wasn't feared for the Death Eater role in the Wizarding War. Moving less frantically over to Hermione, knowing that no one could possibly find out or disturb him to worry him even more, he cast a spell to check her vitals. His heart sped up a little at what he saw...

She was fine. Well, not completely fine, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't cure for her. A couple of days at the least she'd be there. He wasn't sure how many she'd spend unconscious so that her pain was kept to a minimum, and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to explain her absence from class. Or how he expected to keep on top of all his schoolwork, whilst making sure that Hermione didn't die on him. But, this was his fault (it was Harry and Ron's as well though, but for them to feel the guilt they'd have to know what was going on, and Draco wasn't up for sharing), and he was only slightly willing to face the consequences. Going over to the medicine cabinet, Draco started to look through all the different coloured vials, hoping that the one he was looking for was there. There was only a small chance it would be, but at least there was a _chance. _After searching through every potion there was, he just couldn't find it. He'd have to make it himself, he resolved, and hoped that it didn't kill her. _'Merlin,'_ He thought, _'every time I do something to her, I'm close to killing her. It's like a curse.' _ Sighing at the amount of work he'd have to do, Draco pulled the page from the Herbology book out of his pocket, glad that he hadn't destroyed it yet.

_'If mentem reciderent potion doesn't work, or if you have none, then 5mg of a bezoar every day for the next five days will work as well, although this remedy may make their healing time longer. The bezoar is used, of course, as the cure to every poison, so using it to cure the poison of the foxglove will work, but not very powerfully.' _The book read. Having no other choice but to use the bezoar remedy until such a time that he could make _'mentem reciderent'_ potion, he took the stone from one of the shelves, proceeded to crush it with a mortar and pestle and weighed out 5mg, five times and placed each one in a different container for each day in case he was never able to make the potion. He took the first dose of bezoar powder over to Hermione, and willed himself to feel impassive and professional when he was administering it to her. To not become attached, in short- not that he wasn't already. He placed his fingers over her lips, and parted them so that her mouth was open, then tipped the powder down her throat and pinched her nose and shut her mouth so that she had no choice but to swallow unconsciously.

He'd already risked so much today, and almost gave away some of his thoughts to the people he hated most; so, he bent down a placed a soft kiss on her cheek, as at that moment there was nothing else that could go any more wrong.

He sighed heavily again. After this, after she was fine again, he was going to leave her alone. Every time he interfered, Hermione just seemed to get hurt unintentionally, and he couldn't do that anymore, he realised. He'd leave her to get on with the rest of the year without interference or recollection of what happened today. But he'd remember. Draco would always remember this day. It was the day that he found hanging out with the Gryffindor Princess, wasn't all that bad- but most of all, he found that he wanted a bit more than friendship from her.

But it didn't matter. Like he decided- she wouldn't remember, and she'd no longer have to put up with him and she'd be happy. Even if he weren't entirely...

* * *

**A/N- I originally planned for this chapter to be longer, but I decided that something 'dramatic' needed to happen, and so I came up with this, and decided that it deserved a chapter on its own.**

Please review! 3


	14. The Cat That Got The Cream

**A/N- GUYS! I'M BACK! Sorry it's been ages! I've recently seriously gotten stuck into reading and so that's one of the reasons I've been away for so long. Also other things like parties, school work (I'm staring my GCSE's now) and getting into some new bands! And some other things that I'm not going to go into.  
**  
**I hope you readers are still there, so here's the new chapter! Enjoy! :)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Should she still be able to make the noise, she was sure that she would've gasped. As mentioned however, she couldn't and so all she could do was flick her tail back and forth, expressing her anger in the only way she knew. However angry she was though, she couldn't help the curiosity that she felt. What? _They did say that curiosity killed the cat. _She peeked out from behind the door, her pointed ears moving about the top of her head to try to hear if he was saying anything else as he was before.

Nothing.

A strangled yowl bubbled up in her throat but she made sure to keep it contained as not to attract any attention to herself. Instead, she sank her claws into the wooden frame of the door, unfortunately causing it to groan. She quietly threw herself back behind the cover of the door as his head whipped round to see if anyone was there. If he noticed her, he didn't call her out and instead she heard him mutter a goodbye and a ruffling sort of noise as he picked up his bag and robe. She let out a quiet hiss before turning around and quickly darting out of the doors and down the corridor, taking random turns in case he heard her leave and was following.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Ginny had been lurking about the castle since the morning, stuck in a sour mood ever since what Blaise had done to her. Everywhere she went, everyone stared at her. Even the Professors. She'd hissed at a couple of people, bared her fangs to a few others and even swiped at one Fifth Year boy who thought it'd be funny and impressive to his mates to stroke her tail. Yes, it had felt pleasurable in her current form and she had to refrain herself from purring and closing her eyes in contentment, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Blaise had put her into this state and this was far from being classified as a '_minor prank'._ Well, what he did wasn't all that bad seeing as Ginny immediately had her revenge on him, and boy was it sweet revenge. She knew that, technically, she wasn't in the same year as Harry, Hermione and her brother because she is a year younger, but the system had gotten complicated once they came back and at least two year groups had become Seventh Years. With the Seventh Year Prank War, Ginny just assumed that she was included, with herself being a Seventh Year, and if it came down to her not being involved due to 'technicalities', then she'd just use her bit of logic on them. Anyway, Ginny figured, it wasn't as if Dumbledore actually cared much.

"Ah! Finally!" Ginny muttered to herself as she saw the backs of the two boys that she needed to talk to about some serious business. She was sure that Ron at least would have something to say about it, and maybe he'd even do something to sort the problem out. Maybe Harry would even hope off the fence and perhaps help Ron do whatever-it-is he feels he should, or try convince him otherwise if it seems like it'll end in a death.

"Harry! Ron!" She called, as she was a couple of feet away from them. They stopped and whirled around at the sound of her voice. It seemed like they were looking for her as well, but obviously they either hadn't heard the rumours concerning what happened to her, or just didn't believe in them. Now they know that not all rumours are lies.

"Bloody hell Ginny! What _happened _to you?" Ron exclaimed as he reached out to touch one of her ears, just to make sure that it was really there- at the very least, just to know whether it felt any different from a normal cats.

Her black lips pulled upwards in a snarl, baring her fangs as she swatted her brother's hand away from her head. "I've had enough of people trying to pet me thanks, I could do without you trying to as well." She hissed. Ron took a step back, smirking, but putting his hands up in defence against his sister. Her tail twitched in irritation. "And for your information, it was Zabini who did this to me. I showed him though," Her florescent green eyes seemed to light up and the edges of her lips covered her teeth again, pulling up at the corner in what would be a smirk, if she were able to do one. "Turned him into exactly what he is, I did. An ass! Well, I didn't _completely _transfigure him or anything. He's just more of an animal at the moment than I am. Of course, he has the tail, teeth and ears of a donkey like the one I have of a cat, but he doesn't have the hooves because that'd be a bit difficult. Although, in replacement, every time he opens his bloody mouth now he brays!" She was now grinning as wide as the Cheshire Cat and started to purr as Harry, unnoticed by Ginny, reached around and scratched behind her ears. Unconsciously, she leaned into his touch.

"You look rather cute Gin, as a cat. You remind me of Crookshanks." At that, she pulled away, her ears flattening against the top of her head, being quite offended at the comparison between her and Hermione's big, fat, ugly cat that died last year. "Sorry! Just speaking the truth." Harry said laughing.

"Don't you two start distracting me now. I actually had something else _more important _than the fact that I am now half cat, to speak to you guys about." This had gained their attention, and the smiles had suddenly dropped of their faces as they prepared to listen to something 'more important' as Ginny had put it. "First of all though, would either of you like to tell me what exactly happened to make Hermione end up in the Hospital Wing?"

"Malfoy," Ron said at the same time that Harry said;

"We're not sure."

Ron shot him an incredulous look. "What do you _mean '_we're not sure'? You were there! You saw that she was acting strange- he obviously did something to her to make her think they're the best of friends and not us! Imperious Curse, I think."

"Don't be stupid Ron." Harry said, rolling his eyes at his friend. "Her eyes weren't glassy and I'm more than sure that Hermione is able to throw off a simple Imperio. And he didn't attack her when the pain came- he was at the other side of the corridor and his wand wasn't out. Therefore, we don't know what happened to Hermione. Not really."

"Alright," Ginny said nodding. "What _do _you know that happened to her, for _sure?"_

Ron was about to open his mouth, probably about to continue on his tirade about how it was all Malfoy's fault, but Harry quickly beat him to it before they lapsed back into another debate. "For some reason, Hermione believed Malfoy to be her friend and not us. Only hours ago she collapsed, screaming, and Malfoy took her to the Hospital Wing. We weren't allowed to go with. Malfoy's been put in charge of her care," he summarised. Ginny nodded slowly, taking in all his words, her tail barely twitching now.

"Well boys, I saw something..._interesting." _ She looked like she wanted to grimace, or was at least trying to. "Something that the both of you need to know. It seems that Malfoy has some ulterior motives that he didn't want anyone to see."

Both the boys leaned in, eager to hear the news.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

It hadn't actually been as bad as Draco had expected it, trying to explain to the school about where Granger was, every time someone asked him. In fact, hardly anyone asked him, although it wasn't as if he believed that anyone would ask Death Eater Malfoy. Or, maybe, it was because the herd of Gryffindor's that had been there that day had been telling everyone what had had happened, that was obviously how the few people that did knew that he was the one to ask. Her absence was clearly noticeable however, and he was sure that most – if not all – Gryffindors could feel that distinct Hermione aura in the common room and on their table that was missing. It also seemed that she had kept them grounded (well, maybe that was because she was a rather strict Headgirl when it came to certain pranks, and Draco couldn't care less), because in her absence, her House had seemed to have gone wild. A testament to that sat next to him every breakfast, lunch and dinner, by the name of Blaise Zabini who, for about four days now, couldn't do anything but bray; although Ginny Weasley seemed to have almost the same problem as him, except she was a cat.

They were no longer mainly targeting the Slytherins, he had noted, but also Ravenclaw – probably out of envy of their intelligence, Draco was sure – the innocent Hufflepuffs and even their own House mates. It had begun to make people paranoid, even Draco to some extent, and it made it difficult to go to Hermione's classes and collect her homework (which was piled on her bedside table. He only got it for her because he felt that she'd be annoyed to have missed so much work, and maybe it'd get him on her good side), because it felt like he was some sort of spy sneaking around the halls and he always got some suspicious looks from people.

Draco had kept Hermione unconscious for three days, so that he knew when he _Rennervated _her, she'd more or less cured and therefore shouldn't be feeling much pain. He didn't think that he could stand to see her in any more pain. Ever. If he could, he'd keep her in a bubble so that she'd never have to feel any pain; emotional heartbreak or physical beatings – none of them. For the three days, he gave her the bezoar powder the same way that he had the first day. By opening her mouth with his fingers and making sure that she swallowed by pinching her nose. Of course, he relished the feel of any skin contact on her lips, but he refrained from kissing again.

The kiss he realised was a bit of a mistake. The feel of it and the mere thought of it followed him throughout the rest of the day, into the night and it even haunted his dreams with what it would be like if she didn't find him repulsive and what it would feel like if it became a daily thing. He couldn't let one little brief brush of lips distract him.

However, the one little brush _did _distract him, and it distracted him enough for him to decide that making the Mentem Reciderent potion was going to be too risky, seeing as if not brewed correctly then she'd be dead. Therefore, Draco just opted for the safer option of giving her the powder, which was also easier on his part considering that A) he didn't have to make the potion any more. B) That making the potion wouldn't take up his friend time and he could still maintain a social life and have time to do his essays, and C) he wouldn't be kept awake worrying. Blaise _did _try to distract him from his distraction; however, (after calming down from his evil phase since he had to keep the Prince from having so much inner turmoil) and cheered him up by dragging him along to continue with their plan to jinx the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's brooms during tryouts on Wednesday.

"Malfoy?" Hermione said, bringing him out of his reverie. As the cure worked, Hermione adored Draco less and less as well as regaining her memories slowly, and would do until she was fully cured and would be back to think of him as she'd always done. It made it on easier on his part, he always told himself, it meant that he could be cold to her without feeling guilty and it'd be easier just to leave her alone after. _  
_  
"Yes?" He said blankly. Okay, so maybe he couldn't quite bring himself to be cold. He really liked the girl for Merlin's sake! Using an emotionless voice was the best that he could do at the moment, where it would be near impossible for anyone to decipher his true feelings. _  
_  
"You have done the Transfiguration essay, haven't you?" She asked.

Draco sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes and inwardly cursing as he turned his back and continued to ground the bezoar. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped that there were some nearby goats to get stones from because the school's supply needed replenishing thanks to him, and it wouldn't be any good if someone got poisoned and to be out of a cure. "No," he ground out. "You have that with the Hufflepuff's. If you're stuck, go ask them." _  
_  
Hermione didn't say anything else after that, although he could feel her watching him. He just gritted his teeth to avoid snapping at her, and ground the stone with more ferocity until it was the finest powder that he had made for her. When it was done, he walked over to her bed, where she was scribbling away on a piece of parchment, and handed it to her (or more like shoved it under her nose). He ignored her confused expression and before she could ask anything, said, "Swallow it. All of it." She looked at him sceptically for a few seconds, to which he gave her an impatient look – he _did _have to go to class soon – before finally swallowing. She coughed a bit from the dryness, causing Draco's resolve to crumble a bit and making him hand her a glass of water that she took thankfully. He began to gather his own pieces of parchment, quills and inkbottle as well as his textbooks, stuffing them into his bag so that he could get to Potions on time. He was halfway out the door before he was called by Hermione._  
_  
"Malfoy! Malfoy! Dra-"

He froze, having an internal battle about whether he should just keep on walking, or going back to see what she wanted. When he heard her squeal and a body fall to the floor, he groaned and turned around to help her. From the state of her on the floor, it looked like she'd gotten out of bed to try run after him. Draco shook his head in dismay. She hadn't moved in around four days - which he had told her that morning (although he didn't mention why) – shouldn't it have occurred to her that leaping out of bed wasn't such a bright idea. She wasn't entirely used to standing on her own two feet. Weakly, she'd been trying to get up, but she wasn't really getting anywhere until Draco practically lifted her up and set her back on the bed and gave her a stern look. "That was clever," he commented dryly. _  
_  
Hermione smiled a little at that, a little embarrassed, and just brushed some dirt off her knees. "I know. Here," she handed him three rolls of parchment. "I need you to hand them in to Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Sprout for Herbology and Professor Binns for History of Magic. In that order. They're due in today. I have Hagrid first as well, so you better hurry up." _  
_  
Draco was ready to decline, he was late enough for Potions as it was; he didn't need to be delayed even further by having to trek halfway across the grounds and - dare he even think it – possibly into the Forbidden Forest to find the oaf. However, Hermione smiled brilliantly and Draco grudgingly took the papers and stuffed them in his bag. No matter how hard he tried, Granger broke down his walls and he'd do anything to help her once he remembered all the hurt - the kind that he wanted to shield her from – was once caused by him. Love was a weakness. However, it is a tough weakness, something that's hard to overcome. "I hate you Granger," he muttered under his breath as he got up from his kneeling position and turned to leave, properly, this time.

"Thank you! I love you too Malfoy!" She chirped back, unintentionally hearing what he said. He didn't turn back to her; his mind was whirring with different thoughts that he had to sort through – mostly ones about her. She should've been relatively back to normal by now, should the cure be working; she should've been cured by tomorrow morning at the latest. A normal Hermione would never say something like that, especially to him. She shouldn't have even sounded so happy saying it, saying that she loved him – sarcastic at the least, but not happy! It would've sounded almost genuine had she not used his last name. They had never used each other's names properly before, only when each of them was being friendly because of the plot of their prank, so she shouldn't be saying it.

Something...something wasn't right. He didn't want to dwell on it, but he couldn't just forget about it either. What if she was stuck in this sorry state forever?

_Not that I'd mind so much...  
_  
Shaking the thought out of his head, because he couldn't think of that, especially not if it was just a phase, he walked out the door. If it was something serious, Draco still didn't like to believe that St Mungo's was much of a good option. He'd have to solve it himself somehow...

It was a good thing that he had a small idea about how he could remedy it, otherwise he'd have to start from scratch, and who knows how long that'd take.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

When it was lunch, Draco returned to the Hospital briefly, just to poke his head around the door to check whether there was any change in Hermione's character. There wasn't any. She spotted him quickly, unfortunately for Draco he wasn't as stealthy as he had hoped, and she waved to him. He didn't reciprocate the gesture, and with a scowl, he turned and left. Saying that Hermione was confused at his behaviour was a bit of an understatement, he usually interacted a bit before walking off and she couldn't seem to fathom what could've gotten him in such a mood. She shrugged it off, maybe if she saw him again, he'd be in a better mood and it was just a phase.

Draco, meanwhile, was on his own mission to find Potter and Weasley. It was their fault for getting her into this mess, so if they wanted her to remember, then they could bloody well help out now. He had decided that perhaps, having her constantly secluded with him, as her only true visitor, wasn't a particularly good idea. Having her see her friends might just be the trigger, the turning point if you will; and, besides, he needed to see how she reacts to them to see if there was really no change.

It didn't take long to find them (plus Weaslette), they were horrendously noticeable, only Weasley seemed to be the most normal of the trio, and seemed to be the only one who hadn't been targeted from any of the other Houses. He swaggered over to them and he was only mildly surprised to receive the harsh glares that they sent his way when they noticed his presence. Draco smirked, unfazed. He'd gotten used to everyone's hate from all the years. "Potter," he said, grinning mockingly. "You look a bit under the weather. Are you all right?"

Something flashed from the raincloud above Harry's head. Lightning, Draco suspected. Nevertheless, the stormy cloud continued to drench Harry, leaving him standing in a puddle of water. Weaslette, who was still looking very much like a cat, was standing a bit away from Harry with Weasley, who looked positively furious. Draco probably had nothing to do with whatever had gotten their knickers in a twist, but he was as sure as hell that they were going to try to pin something on him. "What do you want Malfoy?" He snapped.

Draco leaned on the wall, eyeing them, trying to work out what had them all so moody. "I don't mean to alarm or anything, Hermione's perfectly fine and if you don't believe that I look after her then you can ask-"

"Oh I have no doubts that you look after her. Perhaps a bit too well," Ginny said coldly, cutting him off.

Draco shifted his body so that he was facing her and narrowed his eyes. "Something you'd like to say?" His eyes flickered over to Ron and Harry on either side of her. "Any of you?"

Ginny only shrugged, nonchalantly and turned her head to look dramatically off to the side of her. Harry crossed his arms, and continued to look thunderous (excuse the pun) underneath his raincloud; Ron was the only one to speak. "The only thing, _Malfoy, _that I have to say about _that_, is that you better keep your distance and to remember that she's _my girlfriend."  
_  
"And, what Weasley is that supposed to mean?" He took a menacing step towards him, only being a couple of inches taller than Ron was.

"You know what you did Malfoy," Ron said in a deathly low voice, looking behind him to the Professors who were talking to each other not so far away, and to a nearby cluster of Slytherin's who would probably help their Prince deliver a good beating. He knew that if he did administer a good blow to Draco then he'd obviously plead not guilty (after he finished pounding his face in, once the Professors noticed) and the Slytherin group, of course, would back him up. Ron would surely get detentions for a month just for that, then once they finished deducting points, Ron didn't doubt that Draco would deduct his own unreasonable amount. His hands, nevertheless, were itching just to get a hold onto the ferret in front of him.

If he were to be honest, Draco would admit that he had a sickening feeling that he knew exactly what Weasley was going on about. He didn't understand how the Weasel could've known; he had made sure that everyone had left the room before he did anything. The door was closed; he had made sure of that too. There was no way that he could've opened the door without Draco knowing – he wasn't that stealthy or subtle. If he had seen him do it, he was more than sure that Weasley wouldn't have been able to restrain himself from attacking him - not that Draco couldn't take a little fight. He was also sure that Potter would've at least interjected if he had seen such a thing. He could probably be subtle if he wanted; Draco had heard that Potter had a very valuable Invisibility Cloak. Now, Draco wasn't so sure about the Weasley Girl. She was in the year below him _and _a Gryffindor (and obviously a Weasley), so he had no need to do anything to do with her. He didn't know how she'd react if she saw him, but considering the famous Weasley Temper she would've done something. Or, maybe, being the only girl in the family, she would be sneakier and cleverer than her brothers are. Besides, Hermione _is _her brother's girlfriend, so even more reason to do _something _because of the sake of family loyalty. Although, Draco remembered, he _did _hear something that morning four days ago. The groaning, if he remembered correctly.

Still, Draco didn't say anything in case it was none of them who saw it or said it, or if he had done something else that he was being blamed for and therefore would be telling them the wrong secret.

"Guilty silence," Ron spat.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Draco growled back. Ron looked furious and turned his head to look at Ginny and Harry, silently asking if he could just say and then fast forward to the part where they fight over her. Harry looked impassive and minutely shook his head, probably not wanting to get into a fight knowing that if they did, it'd be Malfoy's word against theirs and Gryffindor would be far from happy if they lost because of the three of them. Draco noticed that Ginny hadn't shown any answer and, turning to her, snapped, "What? Cat got your tongue?"

Ginny hissed at Draco, baring her fangs and her ears flatted on the top of her head, "I know you kissed Hermione. I _saw_ it."

Draco was winded. He didn't know how to react. How was one meant to react to something like that? There was no denying anything – she saw it.

Draco could've slapped himself. Of course she saw it! She probably came to the Hospital after Blaise transfigured her and then saw him. Thinking back to that day, Draco believed that he was standing so that he would be facing the door if he looked up. That'd mean that she had a perfect view of it, that there was no mistaking what had happened. He glared at each of them and they glared back. Both sides were quiet for a few moments, assessing the other. How to proceed next? He could fight Ron if he so desired, sure, but he couldn't do all three at the same time, no matter how good he was. Anyway, the Weasley Girl had _claws._ So, of course, Draco had no choice but to handle it as most people in Slytherin handled things – lying, blackmail and other forms of self-preservation. "Say that louder. I dare you."

"What makes you think that she wouldn't?" Harry challenged.

Draco locked his steely gaze back on Harry. "Because. If she does – if any of you do - I'll leave Granger in the state she's in." He scanned the other two with his eyes, taking in their defiant postures. "And we wouldn't want that, now would we, Potter?" He grinned ferociously.

"Why you little-" Ron said and lunged forward to grab Draco who had moved away from him to face all of them, roughly in the middle. Ron would've gotten him had Ginny not stopped him, and sunk her claws in hard enough to make him stop momentarily, while Harry spoke, treading on rough ground. "What do you mean, 'the state she's in'? You said that nothing was wrong with her! You are _supposed _to be making sure that she's getting better!"

"But she _is _in my care and I said that she was to have no visitors, and what did you do? You came and spied on me. Clearly there are many things that we're supposed to be doing, but aren't."

"That doesn't count and you know it Malfoy!" Ginny snapped.

"Oh yeah? Did you see her?" Draco said, crossing his arms.

"I don't see what that has to do-"

"_I said, _did you see her?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then you are a visitor! If you see someone, you are visiting them."

Ginny had opened her mouth, ready to go on a tirade, but Harry spoke before she had a chance to say anything. "_What's wrong with Hermione? _That's all we care about, you're just distracting us."

Draco grinned again. "I'll admit that I have been trying to make her get better, but something's not working. It's worked a little bit, but not completely, the intake length of the cure is almost done, and I don't want to risk giving her more. I have, however, an idea that might work, and unfortunately, it includes you three. But here's where my condition comes in. None of you – especially you-" he pointed a finger at Ginny "- tell anybody about what happened and if you stay away from me, I'll stay away from Granger. You break one of these conditions, and I shall do whatever I want."

Draco had planned to avoid them after this anyway, putting in that condition was just meant to persuade them further into agreeing. And by the looks on their faces, it seemed as if they were seriously considering it. It was a good thing that they did though, because he didn't want any more paranoia in his life at the moment – he could do with not having to worry about whether they'd tell anyone, and just focus solely on the paranoia or being pranked.

"And what if we just tell Dumbledore that the treatment's not working and see if we can get her a spot in St Mungos?" Ron asked.  
"He won't agree," Harry muttered under his breath, but Draco still heard him.

Turning his eyes back to Harry, a sly smirk forming on his face from what he _thought _he heard Potter say. "Speak up, Wonder Boy. I can't hear you over the downpour."

Harry rolled his eyes and looked to Ginny and Ron, "If Malfoy protests that she stays here to Dumbledore then he won't let her go _because she's under Malfoy's charge. _And we can't exactly kidnap her."

"Well, well, well. It seems that Potter gets it! So what's it going to be? You're in a bit of a dead-end here – can't do anything _but _agree to my terms and conditions." They all scowled at him. "Glad we're in understanding. Now, if you follow me."

"Hang on a minute Malfoy, you haven't even told us what you want us for," Ginny said as they all, grudgingly, fell into step with each other, quite a distance behind Draco.

"Get this in your head first: I don't want you, I want your memories. Your brother and boyfriend were so keen on trying to get Granger to remember them that they accidentally damaged a part of her brain. It's not irreparable – I've done that much. Anyway, they wanted to get her to remember them properly, so here's their chance. Besides, I also want to see if she still doesn't like you."

"What if something happens like it did last time?" Ron asked, a challenging tone to his voice.

"Then I throw you out and I leave her how she is. It's rather hard to come across a Gryffindor who is actually nice to me."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Hermione," Harry said as he walked into the room after Malfoy.

She looked up from a textbook that she was reading and smiled at her three visitors plus Draco. She was sitting on her Hospital bed, but she didn't give any indication that she was going to try get out now, as she had did this morning, probably learning from her mistake then. "Harry, Ginny!" She called, closing her book and setting it on the bedside table. "And, err-" She faltered at Ron's name and gave a sheepish smile, her cheeks turning red. Harry and Ginny walked straight up to her (ignoring her confusion over Ron) and gave her hugs, whilst Ron hung back, suddenly nervous about what to do.

"It's, uh, Ron," he said, scratching the back of his neck, as if this was the first time he was meeting her. "You're my girlfriend." He blushed scarlet, unreasonably nervous.

"Interesting..." Draco muttered to himself a few metres behind Ron, who turned around sharply after hearing him and glared.

"Ron," Hermione amended, smiling, but didn't open up her arms to welcome him for a hug.

"So 'Mione, how are you feeling?" Ginny asked brightly.

"Well, considering I've been asleep for three days I'm obviously feeling refreshed!"

"I don't even know why you bother asking, Gin. She's clearly feeling good if she's doing homework instead of welcoming the stress-free days off class," Ron commented. Hermione smiled shyly (although it didn't completely reach her eyes) and looked at her hands.

"I _meant _if she remembers correctly again," Ginny said, sending her brother an exasperated look.

"Remember correctly?" Hermione murmured, confused. She wasn't remembering things? No...they said she wasn't remembering things _correctly - _whatever _that _meant. But Hermione was sure that she was fine and she was remembering things, and remembering them correctly for all she knew. She should know best though, shouldn't she? It was _her _memories after all. Unless they were purposely trying to change something that she couldn't remember. But they wouldn't though, would they? She trusted Ginny and Harry - they were her best friends - and she trusted Draco. He'd been taking care of her for, apparently, around four days. If he hadn't done something like that, then she'd be sceptical. That Ron person, however, she didn't know. Try as she might, she couldn't find any memory of him being her boyfriend. He seemed to be friends with Harry and Ginny, she caught the glare that he had sent Draco though, and guessed that they were far from that sort of relationship.

"You had some problems remembering some things correctly when - when we brought you in here," Draco explained from the back, gaining all their attentions. Hermione, of course, knew that there was something that he wasn't telling her. It was plain to see and hear, but she didn't want a confrontation, especially in front of everyone. Anyway, he would've told her if he wanted to.

"What sort of things?" She asked curiously, looking at him.

He hesitated for a second, before replying stiffly, "I'll tell you later Granger."

Harry eyed Draco sceptically and all the while he spoke to Hermione. "It doesn't matter anyway. You remember us and you know we're friends, that's all we need," he said kindly.

"Actually," Draco said, sounding rather smug, for reasons unknown even to him. "She doesn't know who Weasley is. Ron Weasley, that is Granger. Her brother."

"Oh," she said sounding deflated.

"What's got you so proud? Was this your plan Malfoy?" Ginny accused.

"Nothing! I had nothing to do with this!" He said, smirking.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Ron asked. "It'd be great if my girlfriend knew who I was!"

"Yeah, you said you had a plan Malfoy. So, what do you have to say?"

He shrugged and walked towards Hermione's bed, looking down at her. "Kiss her," he said simply. "That usually always brings back good memories for people." He smiled mockingly at Ron. "Unless the kiss wasn't too good."

"And you think this will work?" Ginny asked doubtfully. "We're not part of a fairytale."

"It's worth a shot, isn't it? I mean, by all means don't try if you think your kisses haven't been memorable," he said, then in a whisper by Ron's ear he said, "I could try if you like. Maybe then she'd remember the kisses that were unsatisfactory compared to mine, and your name would just 'pop' back into her head."

Ron's face turned the colour of his hair and shoved Draco away from himself. He walked closer to the bed, so that he was now towering over Hermione.

"I'll kiss her then Malfoy. You just wait."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N- Sorry it's been so long! Almost 4 months I think, could you believe it?! I hope this is satisfactory? I'm not really used to writing for this story since it's been so long, so I hope the style is the same? **

**IF THERE ARE ANY MISTAKES PLEASE SAY SO THAT I CAN CORRECT THEM!**

I'd love to hear your ideas about what's wrong with Hermione and how they could get her back to normal. Do you think Ron's fairytale kiss will work? Or might a certain Slytherin have to step in?

PLEASE REVIEW AND FAVOURITE!


	15. Kissing The Frog, Ahem, I Mean Slytherin

**A/N- Sorry it took so long to write this chapter, but it's here now, and I must say that I am actually quite proud of it.**

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You know those memories where you just see something - like a poster for a random band that you've never heard of - and it just suddenly triggers a memory, then you start giggling stupidly to yourself and people give you strange looks because you just look completely mental? Alternatively, the ones where you remember and you are sorely horrified with yourself for _ever _thinking, saying, or doing something like that?

Yeah, of course you do. Everyone has at least one.

However, here's the thing: D'you know those dreams where something good happens - like you end up kissing someone that you would've never thought about liking, but now the more you think about it, yeah, they're actually alright and you do actually sort of like them – and you wake up? Then the disappointment comes because it hasn't happened and probably never will. But all the same, somewhere in the back of your mind, you wish that it was true, that you could believe it?

Yes? Well if not, you'll probably have one soon.

And do you know those almost-nightmares, where again, something bad happens– like the person that you love the most (not exclusively in a sexual way) just ditches you because they suddenly hate you and you end up crying after you wake up or in the dream because you couldn't imagine something that would hurt you like that – and you wake?

Don't worry; you'll have this one at some point in your lives.

But do you know a place in Scotland? A place for _very _special people? A place called Hogwarts, which is invisible to ordinary people called Muggles? Where, deep inside the walls, down a couple of corridors until you reached the infirmary, Hermione Granger was experiencing all three of these aforementioned things (in case you're lost, when I said 'the three aforementioned things', we're talking about the memories, dreams and almost-nightmares) at the same time, all because of one kiss.

You see, only minutes before, Hermione's two best friends - Harry and Ginny – came to visit her in the hospital, accompanied by some stranger that went by the name of Ron, lead by her close friend Draco. All she knew was that something had happened to her. No one would tell _what _exactly, but Ginny had said something about her not remembering correctly, so clearly it had something to do with that. Not that Hermione actually understood what they were on about – her memories were perfectly fine. Anyway, from what she had also gathered, the only reason Draco had brought them here was to try to trigger some memories with some delusional plan.

And what was this plan you may ask?

To tell the stranger, Ron Weasley (who is apparently her boyfriend), to kiss her in hopes of it triggering something. Now, seeing as she had no bloody idea who he was, she was as sceptical of kissing him as everyone else was about it _actually _working.

However, it wasn't as if that really mattered, because before Hermione could even protest to the absurd idea, his mouth had been on hers. In the initial shock of it all, she didn't push him away, so he kept on kissing her, but she didn't reciprocate the gesture either. Once she had come to comprehend fully what had just happened, she reached out her hands to push him away, but by that time, he had already pulled back. With a flushed face, he searched her face frantically, as if his very life depended on these memories returning. They probably did, she realised. Why else did he say that he was going to kiss her so confidently, with so much determination, that it was as if he was not only trying to convince himself that he'll do it, but everyone else too. Although, the others didn't really seem to need convincing as they just watched his lips swoop down to meet hers with a tense silence, and a stony face from Draco in the background.

She looked to him now, unable even to glance at the Ron character, her cheeks growing red. He was standing as rigid as a board, as if he was awaiting a strong blow to strike him somewhere on his body. There was no emotion in his eyes either, as they stared straight back into hers. He never usually kept himself this guarded, she thought, unless what he was guarding himself against would protect himself as well as his reputation. It was odd that he looked so bored (though she couldn't really tell his true feelings, as mentioned earlier on in the paragraph), when he was the one to suggest the idea of kissing her in the first place, when he encouraged the ginger to do it in his backwards way of doing things, by mocking him. In front of everyone. Which was rather embarrassing, Hermione must admit, because it almost – _almost_ – seemed as if Draco had some feelings for her, which she'd never imagine he'd have in all her wildest dreams. But, anyway, that was stupid. Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin, was a fine looking man and there'd be no way that he'd so much as even consider liking someone as plain as Hermione Granger – he has much more aristocratic tastes in women, surely.

"Well?" Ron prompted her meekly, his quiet voice sounding loud in the silence. "Do you-?"

"Remember?" She whispered, as if the situation called for everyone to be quiet; though she still didn't believe there to be anything wrong with herself. Blankly, Ron gave a small nod of his head and continued to search her face with his eyes. "No," she said with an imperceptible shake of her head.

Ron's shoulders slumped and he seemed greatly disheartened by the news. Everyone did really – except for Draco who seemed to stand a bit taller, though he still looked bored – but not as much as Ron was. Harry patted her hand again, reassuringly, and Ginny gave her a half-hearted smile that seemed to say that it wasn't such a big deal. And, maybe it wasn't. Once she was out of the Hospital, she'd be back with Ginny and Harry (maybe Draco on odd days) and if they really were good friends with 'Ron', then she'd eventually know him too. Then again, maybe it was that bad. If she really was not remembering something, like Ron, for instance, then what else was she not remembering? What if Ron really was an important person in her life, what about all the memories she had with him? She'd never be able to get them back.

Hermione was broken out of her reverie by a snicker in the background that transformed into a chuckle, which filled the tense - yet almost awkward - silence. She looked curiously at him, laughing about something that only he knew; the others though, were shooting him glares.

"And what is it that is so bloody hilarious Malfoy?" Ginny snapped, her hackles rising. "You said it would work!"

At that, Draco sobered up pretty quickly. "For your information Weaslette, I said that it was worth a shot – I never guaranteed that there would be a definite outcome. That, however, is not the reason for my mirth," he said.

"What is it then? The fact that it didn't work?" Harry asked.

"No. I thought that it might not work. There was a 50/50 chance." He grinned at this, looking pleased.

"Yet you still made me do it?" Ron said angrily.

"Like I said, Weasley, there was a 50/50 chance. It was worth a shot," Draco sneered.

"Was there any particular reason why it didn't work?" Hermione piped up from her bed. Everyone turned to face her, as if they'd forgotten that she was even there, then slowly turned back to face Draco and awaited his answer.

He looked directly at her, and when he spoke, it was almost as if she was the sole person he was telling – as if the other three people in the room didn't exist. He spoke calmly as well, the complete opposite of most everyone else's feelings at that moment. "You know," he said, "sometimes the worst memories stand out more than the best."

Everyone looked thoughtful for a moment, oblivious to the look Draco was sending to Hermione, as she looked away, red tainting her cheeks. Truth be told, he was amused because of it not working, but in a smug way. He was happy that, obviously, it wasn't Weasley that would be the one to break the magic, for which he was more than glad. If it was Potter and not he however, he was going to be irritated for days.

Irritated – not jealous. Malfoy's don't do jealous.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Harry asked, calmer than he previously was.

"Now, _that _Potter, was the reason why I was laughing." Draco was grinning again as he reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a crinkled piece of parchment that seemed to have writing on both sides and looked as if it had been-

"Draco Malfoy! I can't _believe _that you ripped that page out of a book!" Hermione shrilled, as if it actually hurt the book to have its page torn out. He shot her a scathing look that silenced her, but she still looked greatly annoyed.

"Now, this-" he waved the parchment about above his head so that they wouldn't be able to discern what it was about – "is a page I found on how to cure Granger. I've looked at it before, and that was how I was able to do her first piece of medication. However, I was convinced that it would work, so I always skipped past that informed you about what to do _if _it didn't and I completely forgot about it," he said.

"And...that's it? You were laughing because you forgot?" Ginny asked, confused.

"I was laughing because I _remembered. _Merlin, I was only pausing to let it sink into your dense brains – I wasn't finished explaining yet." Ginny started mumbling obscenities about Malfoy to herself under her breath, and rolling her eyes at him. Draco sighed; sounding bored or aggravated, though that was the complete opposite to what he was feeling. Inside, he was excited. In a few moments, they'd understand the _real _reason why it didn't work and Weasley's heart would be utterly crushed by Hermione, even though it wasn't as if she knew that she was breaking him right now. He cleared his throat. "It says here, and I quote, "If neither the potion nor the...powder works, then the last option is to use a very ancient piece of magic that can sometimes be seen in fairytales. The last option for the person who is being affected by the-" he coughed here, in replacement of saying the name of the Dark Magic that he used, for which he was sure that he would be killed there and then for using it–"is very simple and requires no magic at all. What will free the unfortunate person is the kiss that they most desire. Only that and nothing more." Draco turned to Ron, who was turning redder than his hair again, and leered at him.

At that moment, no one could've been as smug in all of history as Draco was feeling.

"You made that up! You don't really have a cure do you Malfoy? You brought us here – especially me –to just take the piss!" Ron yelled accusingly, jabbing a finger in Draco's direction.

"I admit that I didn't directly quote the passage, but I _did _tell you the gist of it, Weasley. I wouldn't accuse me of lying again, especially if I could easily restore her - if that's what you're insinuating – because I'd like nothing more to just leave her. Don't you think I wouldn't?" Ron grunted in frustration, anger and possibly jealousy, and trudged over to the corner of the room where, he seemed to Draco, to sulk.

"For some reason Malfoy, I – _we _– still don't believe you. I've never come across that sort of magic before, in all my life," Ginny said, standing up from the chair and folding her arms.

"I agree. I mean, are you seriously suggesting that Hermione doesn't desire Ron anymore? I know she doesn't remember him, but that seriously can't affect her desires. She might think that she doesn't desire him, but – come on – they love each other! The _real _Hermione loves him and no one else. I'm sure of it," Harry said, sounding more and more exasperated towards the end.

"Are you saying that I'm not real?" Hermione said incredulously.

"No. I didn't mean it like-"

"Yes. It bloody well sounded like you did."

"Hermione-"

"Look, if you just want the goddamn _real _Hermione back, then I suggest that you listen to what Draco's suggesting. If she really means a lot you, you'd do anything, right?" Hermione snapped and turned her head slightly away from everyone so that they couldn't see her wipe away a small tear that was forming in her eyes.

Harry had opened his mouth to say something else, to convince Hermione that he really didn't mean it. That it was just a stupid slip of the tongue, and if they couldn't turn her back, then he wouldn't mind. That t least she was Hermione and not someone else in her body; though when she looked at Ron with no recognition, it rather felt that way. However, before he could, Ginny put a hand on his arm to warn him against insulting her further.

"I must tell you that, true, that fact that she can't remember Weasley doesn't affect her desires. The kiss she desires now, would be the same as she desired before all of this mess. Whether she knew that it was no longer Weasley, clearly, or not, I do not know and probably never will."

"But why a kiss? That's what I can't understand. Why not a Reversing spell?" Ginny asked.

"Well..." Draco said, his eyes once again finding Hermione, and then he took in a deep breath. "Love is a magic that even Muggles can do. It's not hard. Even something so simple can break curses sometimes. Say you Obliviate someone and you want them to remember again, you can either use a spell to restore their memories or you could try to jog their memory with certain things or people. And there's always a possibility that the spell might go wrong – nothing can go wrong when there's no real magic. Logical, isn't it?"

"...That was deep, Malfoy. How much time did you spend rehearsing that so that we believed your bullshit?" Ron said from the corner he was still standing in.

"I'm not trying to convince you to do it Weasley. Especially not you, since obviously you aren't the one she desires anymore. All I'm doing is giving you the option to cure her and you can't accuse me of not doing this cure at the beginning, because I did. I just didn't tell you about it then."

They all paused for a moment, considering how to respond. Harry looked to Hermione, thinking, though she was avoiding everyone's eyes, choosing to look at her bed sheets. Surely, it couldn't be him, he thought. From the day, they became friends it has all they have ever been. He never even once considered the possibility of dating Hermione, not even just because Ron had told him that he had a crush on her. There was no one else Harry could think of that Hermione had become close to recently, apart from Malfoy – but she wasn't that close to him. They were just Heads after all, and they still had their usual fights, though without many insults. Anyway, Hermione would never desire a kiss from someone like Malfoy, right? After everything he did to her, after everything he called her; and besides, she was dating Ron. Ron! They hated each other more than Malfoy hated Harry and vice versa.

Looking Malfoy challengingly in the eye, Harry spoke up. "And the person she desires...does that person have to desire her too? Or is it a one-sided thing?"

Draco looked coolly back at Harry and spoke slowly and carefully when he answered. "Not necessarily, but that can happen."

Ginny blinked, but stayed quiet. Harry and Draco still held each other's gaze, determined not to be the one to back down.

"Would she know? Would she know who the person that she desires is?" Harry asked.

"She might. It is her mind after all."

Annoyed that they were so blatantly talking about her as if she weren't there, Hermione looked up from her lap to stare at Harry and Draco, though they weren't paying her any attention. She was about to speak up about this whole cure rubbish as well, to say that she doesn't know whom she desires, that she isn't particularly interested in anyone, when she realised that she was clearly staring at Draco's face. Specifically, his lips. His top perfectly curved, both perfectly shaped and parted in a way that made Hermione want to pull him to her and see if they were as soft as they looked. It was an odd urge for her, since she had never actually spent much time on the thought of kissing her good friend/healer, but maybe she knew that it was him that she desired. On top of the fact that he was undeniably handsome, there was just something attractive about him that Hermione couldn't put her finger on.

As well as noticing his lips, she also noticed that there were a pair of eyes drilling into the back of her head and she had a pretty good idea who they belonged to. Turning around sharply, she managed to catch the gingers flashing blue eyes as he watched her stare at Draco. His face was disguising his jealousy and disgust rather well, but Hermione had always been perceptive, and when it came to hiding emotions, he was just like his sister. She always would know how Ginny was feeling, even if she tried her hardest not to show it. And after spending a lot of her life around Draco Malfoy, the boy who always wore a mask, it was easy to tell when someone was trying to hide something. Hermione scowled at him and he turned away. It was clear that Ron hated Draco with a passion, and that Harry wanted her – the '_real' _Hermione, he'd called it – back, so Hermione saw nothing wrong in killing two birds with one stone.

Bird one: she could get her revenge on Ron, after he kissed her without enough time for her to react, and more to the point of the fact that she believed that they were absolute strangers. Couldn't he have accepted that? Couldn't he have not risen up to Draco's taunting?

Bird two: Harry could have his Hermione back, and so could everyone else, though they kept their opinions of wanting her back to themselves. It'd make her happy to make them happy.

And maybe there was even a third bird thrown into the equation. Maybe she only wanted to take the whole situation into her hands because she wants to know what it would be like to kiss Draco. Would it feel right? Alternatively, would it just feel wrong to kiss your friend like that? And what would his reaction be? Would he pull away or deepen it? She made a little squeak at the thought of it, which attracted everyone's attention. She cleared her throat in an attempt to act casual.

"If you both are done speaking as if I'm invisible, then I have something I'd like to ask."

The boys looked at her evenly.

Hermione stared Draco defiantly in the eye as she swung her legs over the bed and stood up slowly, wobbling slightly, to which Ginny rushed to her aid seeing that she wanted to move. Draco just raised an eyebrow, slightly unimpressed that she decided to move, though he was interested in her motives. Ginny gripped Hermione's arm tightly and moved carefully and patiently to help Hermione as well as she could, and Hermione became steadier after every step she took until she shook Ginny off to move by herself, albeit still with measured steps. Everyone watched her both curiously and tensely as she moved to stand in front of Draco Malfoy. Everyone had straightened up by then, suddenly on alert to what could be happening. Draco only looked down at her, smirking.

"Granger?" He asked, sounding amused.

"Do you know who I desire, Malfoy?"

"If only life was that simple."

And without warning, Hermione had reached onto her tiptoes and softly pressed her lips to his. She heard his sharp intake of breath, as well as felt it, and though her eyes were closed, she could see the horrified faces of her friends. She almost fell back when she felt his fingertips graze her cheeks and chin and lips move against hers, but one of his arms caressed down her side until it wrapped around her waist and kept her firmly against him.

It was then that Hermione began to experience the dreams and almost-nightmares that were explained at the beginning.  
Memories slowly started to filter back to Hermione, all of them involving Ron and Draco.

Ron making jokes about her because she knew everything, going on different adventures with Ron and Harry, having arguments with Ron over his rat and her cat, getting upset over him not asking her to the Yule Ball, him accidentally insulting her. Nevertheless, there were the good times, like all the sweet things that he did say to her – like what he told her about the ball of light after he reappeared in the Forest of Dean.

However, there was Draco too; Draco insulting her heritage, her looks, her friends; causing her teeth to grow. There was also the magical moment that Hermione would never forget of when she walked down those stairs during the Yule Ball and even the Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy, who never ran out of insults, had nothing to say.

It was when Draco's tongue had smoothly parted her lips and dipped his tongue into her mouth, that she realised just who she was kissing. It was then that the thoughts that she had about kissing Malfoy trickled back into her mind and she froze, horrified with herself for thinking something like that. Her horror escalated to the ceiling then, when his tongue caressed the top of her mouth and she shivered at his touch, remembering that her lips were still on his. Her eyes flew open and she stumbled away from Draco, his arming dropping when he realised that she pulled away.

Once free of his hold she made the unwise decision to look at his face. His face, eyes darkened with lust, a faint red blush on his cheeks and his lips slightly swollen. He held her gaze, and she was sure that she saw something like recognition flash in them before he dropped his eyes to the floor. She looked at him then, really looked at him and for all his faults, some for which he had made up for, she saw that he was truly handsome. The way that his hair fell in his eyes gave him a boyish look, and his confidence was something that she now saw as attractive.

And that kiss, it hadn't been so bad – better, actually, than most of hers with Ron, when he did kiss her these past few months that is. Just thinking about what she broke away from made her head dizzy with the sweetness of it all. He was nice to her as well, from what she vaguely remembered when she had been...The Other Hermione. He took care of her, and she couldn't deny that though she may have broken many rules with him, it was the most fun that she had doing it. He didn't tease her for her knowledge of spells – he tried to outdo her every time, but it wasn't now just because of blood purity. The Nice Draco Malfoy, that treated Hermione as an equal as of recently, she enjoyed.

She was sure now that she liked Draco, and even more sure that he liked her as well, though it would probably be best if they'd never admit it.

Neither friends nor their Houses would never stand for it.

Hermione quickly dropped her gaze from him as well, as looked around the room expecting to see Ron, Harry and Ginny there as they had been before she kissed him, but only Ginny was left. She looked to her best girl friend with a confused face, and Ginny spent no time in running over to comfort her. It was only when she felt Ginny's finger brush her face did she realise that she was crying.

"Shh, Hermione. Shh. Harry's just gone to...calm down Ron. Make him see sense," she soothed, rubbing circles on her back. In the back of her mind, she was sure that she heard the Hospital door either open or close, but if it was someone coming in, it wasn't Harry or Ron. "They'll be back soon. I'm sure."

That was it then. It definitely wasn't them.

"What did he say?" Hermione choked on a sob.

There was a pause, then, "Nothing 'Mione."

"Gin," she said a bit more firmly, lifting her head from her shoulder to look her in the eye. "What did Ron say? I heard him say something."

"I'm sorry 'Mione," she whispered so quietly that Hermione almost didn't hear her, but she did.

She cried a bit more then, but she wasn't mourning that much over the death of their relationship. He had only kissed her a few times in the past couple of months and they didn't go out much anymore. Their relationship was dying anyway; kissing Draco only hurried it along. What she was truly sad about was that he had made such a snap decision over dumping her. Sure, she had initiated the kiss with Draco, but she had looked inside herself and she saw how nice he'd been to her and that he surely must've been developing some feelings at least for her, especially for how he acted on the Quidditch pitch. Ron could've tried to understand. It was either she kissed him, or she never remembered him again. What would he rather?

Most of all though, she mourned the affect that it might have on four of their friendships.

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**A/N- Woohoo! Look at that Dramione action! Kissing scenes aren't my best, so sorry if it was a bit of a let down.**

I also got the idea for the kiss from City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, from when they're in the Seelie Court. If you haven't read her Shadowhunter series, I recommend that you do!

Please favourite, follow and review! 


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